Caliburn Initiative
by Kur0Kishi
Summary: More than six decades ago, the remnants of the Ancient Belkans decided that a force was needed to administer Dimensional Space in order to prevent another pan galatic War from happening again, and the TSAB was born. Today, as young mage native to Earth was having a very bad day with the emergence of the Book of Darkness, a young boy is found floating in dimensional space.
1. First Step: Ninja Meets Mage

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 1**

**Ninja Meets Mage  
**

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Nanoha is owned by Seven Arcs and Naruto is owned by Kishimoto. **

Glad tidings to everyone.

Kishi has agreed after I skilfully persuaded (read: blackmailed) him to help me write this crossover if he didn't want me to tell everyone that he hated (read: scared shitless) the magical girl genre. No you don't get to know why he hates (read: scared shitless) the genre. After sending him the framework I wanted, my dear beloved big brother managed to write this while he sat tanning himself somewhere in Tasmania's hills. Though that might just be because there's nothing to **DO **down there.

In the middle of effing summer no less.

I'll never understand boys.

By the way, I have absolutely no clue what school Nanoha and co attends, so I'm making it up.

**Soundtrack List**

John Dreamer – Beginning of a Legend

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Sir!" a rather breathless young cadet that had been assigned to sentinel duty sloppily saluted with a nervous look on his face. Understandable, considering that he was currently talking to one Midget Crowbel. Despite her soft spoken attitude and motherly smile, taking her warm disposition for granted and angering her needlessly was generally regarded as one of the best ways of committing suicide short of gutting yourself with a blunt knife amongst the staff of TSAB.

"At ease, cadet." The purple haired woman nodded with an easy smile, "Do you know why you are here today?"

"Ye-Yes ma-am." The young man swallowed nervously, "I am to report my observations regarding the unknown object that I discovered floating in deep dimension space, coordinate G-003, during active sentinel duty."

"Good." She smiled again, "What can you tell me about the unidentified object?"

The nervous cadet immediately began to prattle away every single detail. Crowbel simply listened with half an ear, almost everything was already detailed in the preliminary reports, the chief of staff simply wanted to hear about the incident from the person himself.

Sentinel duty or more commonly known as dead man's end because the chances of anything ever reaching the Time and Space Administration Bureau in deep dimension space considered little next to none. Therefore the duty was widely regarded as more of a petty joke amongst the higher ranked officers and served as a useful way to officially instil discipline, or unofficially haze new cadets such as the young man before her. However the fact remained that an inert object had manage to float its way into TSAB Headquarters' secure little pocket and had been found by the young man on the way back from his lonely 17 hour long space patrol.

When he had contacted Headquarters for instructions, more than one person figured that the young cadet had been driven to insanity due to his loneliness.

Then again, he wouldn't be the first or the last cadet to start seeing things during sentinel duty.

Much to his and everyone else's surprise, he was not in fact hallucinating and the very real object in question had been a frozen and desiccated body of what appeared to be a wounded young man.

Body wasn't really the best adjective to describe the young man with; Crowbel chastised herself mentally, though no one could really blame her for it.

After half heatedly applying emergency defrosting to the body in order to find out how the young man had found himself drifting in dimensional space, more out of protocol rather than any regard for the young man's safety mostly because everyone thought that he was more than likely already dead, TSAB's entire Science Department had been understandably shocked stupid by the fact that the blonde was actually** alive** despite the horrendous amount of injuries he had somehow gathered before being thrown into dimensional space and drifting in the volatile environment for an unknown amount of time, but just barely.

Needless to say, entire groups of trained soldiers ran about like headless chickens while the young man, of about 10 years of age looked to be still in a coma was put under heavy quarantine. The problem was kicked upstairs until it reached Crowbel's hands, one step short of the Council themselves.

And if she had anything to say about it, the obviously traumatized and very interesting young man whose preliminary medical reports were showing some very strange but interesting things; including an undiscovered magic system that was probably from an unexplored dimension and a ridiculously huge Linker Core, was not about to become research fodder for the old brains jars.

Assuming his mental state was stable enough, the boy could prove to be a very valuable asset to the TSAB.

The question then was, how could she get him to join willingly?

A quiet tinkle from her personal interface alerted the old woman to a new report detailing the most recent, one of many in fact, reappearance of another Lost Logia, the Book of Darkness.

Midget Crowbel smiled.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Nanoha's eyebrow twitched. The green haired admiral had ambushed her and Fate while they were recuperating from a rather magnificent defeat with an unknown enemy, so she could be forgiven for feeling a little irritable.

"And there you have it, while Naruto-san is recuperating, Chief Crowbel thought it would be good for him to reintegrate into society with the help of someone of his age. Unfortunately, none of our translators are able to understand what he is saying so for the moment, communication with him is limited to a few words and hand signs while he acclimatizes while we reprogram our systems to accept his language."

Her fist clenched and Nanoha nearly screeched, causing Fate to give her soon to be adoptive mother, Lindy Harlown an apologetic smile as she laid one calming palm on Nanoha's shoulder, "Baby-sitting duty?!"

The blonde haired boy cast his dull blue eyes on her, before silently returning to his kindergarten level book with a shuffle that somehow managed to convey how irritating he thought she was.

If anything, being brushed off so easily only made the 9 year old even more upset, she was already busy enough trying to deal with a new Lost Logia and now they foisted **babysitting **duty on her of all things?

"I refuse!"

Lindy Harlaown sweat dropped, she was getting the impression that her next bit of news was going to be just as welcome, "Did I mention he's also going to be staying with us on Earth while the Arthra undergoes repairs?"

This time Fate was the one to blanch.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Admiral Lindy, Chrono, Fate, Amy and a rather blank faced Naruto stood outside their new home, watching as Lindy directed the movers carrying the furniture into their new temporary home. At their feet was a small brown furred puppy and a green eyed ferret rested on Naruto's shoulder. Surprisingly, the blonde had not commented at all when the two animals had shown him their true forms as human and familiar, nor had he objected to the Yuuno turned ferret sticking to him at all times. At least, not vocally, although Yuuno would later complain about the blonde's tendency to walk into walls, somehow accidentally using the ferret as a cushion. The genuinely nice ferret of course thought it was a sincere accident and just thought that Naruto-san's muscle control was still wonky from being frozen for so long.

The smirk on the blonde's face told an entirely different story.

"Naruto? Fate? Can you come with me to introduce ourselves to the neighbours?" the green haired woman called from the door step as she gestured for Chrono to start setting up their instruments in the house.

The blonde mutely tilted his head with a confused expression, as if he didn't understand what she was saying, causing Lindy to chuckle at the resemblance the boy's confused expression bore to a cute fox, "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you can't understand me yet."

In the middle of the street, she began miming taking a walk to the blonde. When that didn't seem to work, she smiled in slight resignation and gently took his hand and tugged him along gently, a blushing Fate's almost tiny palm in her other hand.

Naruto Uzumaki pursed his lips, withholding the urge to roll his eyes as Lindy Harlaown bowed politely to Nanoha's parents. She was either just that innocent or just that good at acting. There was no way she could've failed to notice the group of drooling young men standing slightly behind them. Within minutes of introducing herself, the dignified and beautiful green haired lady that was posing as their youthful mother had somehow managed to get herself a gaggle of admirers.

Even the ferret had noticed.

"Admiral Lindy is really popular isn't she?" Yuuno seemed to mutter to himself.

"Damn right. It's almost a crime that she's single."

Yuuno blinked and his tiny ferret jaw dropped as he boggled at the human whose shoulder he was riding on, "You can talk?!"

Naruto returned the look of surprise with a blank one complete with dull eyes.

"But... Huh?"

Naruto promptly walked into another wall.

Rolling his eyes at the ferret's swirly ones, the blonde quietly moved to a corner of the cafe and observed Lindy talking to Nanoha's parents while Nanoha herself was introducing Fate to two of her classmates, a brown haired girl with a noticeably proud bearing and a polite purple haired girl.

"Oh my, are you interested in that?"

Naruto blinked, he hadn't noticed the older brown haired girl approach him from the side, nor did he understand what she was referring to. Seeing his blank look, the older girl gestured at the small basket filled with knitting implements that he was standing beside. He blinked again.

Smiling gently, the older girl picked up a set and pressed it into his hands, "Here, you can have it. Think of it as a gift, neighbour."

The heck was he supposed to do with some needles and a ball of yarn?

Shrugging, he pocketed them and nodded in thanks, causing the girl to laugh, "I'm Miyuki. You and your sister are rather shy aren'tcha?"

Oh right, Fate was supposed to be his sister wasn't she?

He nodded slowly and promptly tuned out the girl's chatter until it was time to leave.

"What do you think of them?" a smiling Kyoya asked his sister as the Harlaown family left their small cafe.

"They're nice... especially the mother. She seemed really easy to get along with and Nanoha was really good friends with their daughter."

"Oh? What about the son? I noticed you talking to him."

A curious Nanoha edged closer to eavesdrop on her older sister and brother.

"I'm not sure..." Miyuki fiddled with her hem thoughtfully, "He seemed rather aloof and standoffish but I guess that's just normal for someone who just shifted. I noticed that his hands are scarred though, as if he fought a lot."

"Oh? Is he a good fighter?" Kyouya asked with some interest, perhaps the boy would be a good partner for some spars.

Miyuki shook her head lightly, "The scarring was along the back of his hands and the tips of his fingers. If anything, I'll bet he fights with fists instead of swords, though I could tell that he was definitely experienced."

Nanoha's older brother shrugged and made a mental reminder to ask for a spar anyway, Miyuki's judgement was almost always on the mark and everybody in the Takamachi family knew it, including a curious Nanoha.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Ano... Admi... Lindy-san wanted me to ask you if you had any preferences for dinner tonight." The rather soft spoken Fate timidly asked the blonde boy who was sitting on the window sill of their new house. Having just moved in, the young blonde girl had taken it upon herself to make her new... family as comfortable as possible, and she was determined to do the same for the silent young boy. Looking around, she took in the plain and empty room with only a single bed, table and dresser.

Though that was probably more because the boy had nothing to call his own rather than a conscious decision, something the old Fate could somewhat commiserate with. Before the moving in, Admir... Lindy-san had provided them with the boy's dossier. It was frightfully thin and contained nothing but his preliminary scans and stated that the boy had been recovered while wounded, frozen and adrift in dimensional space. Physically, the boy seemed fine, but at the bottom of the dossier was a red warning, alerting the reader to the blonde's likely unstable state of mind.

Dull blue eyes came to rest on red eyes before he slowly shook his head and indicated the book in his hands with a slight wave.

Fate bowed politely before speaking softly, "I hope that your studies go well. Admi... Lindy-san has said that if you can catch up, we can go to school together." The blonde girl timidly smiled, "I would like that very much."

When the newcomer just continued to stare at her blankly, she hesitated before trying again, although she was unsure how much of her words that the stranger could understand, but she felt like trying anyway, "Please doesn't be angry with Nanoha for reacting badly. She was feeling rather down at the time. Our companions, Bardiche and Raising Heart were also hurt very badly."

To her pleasant surprise, his crystal blue eyes gained a slightly mirthful glint and he opened his mouth to speak haltingly, "I... understand. Friends... hurt. Uncomfortable."

Lindy-san would be very pleased that the blonde finally spoke. Maybe he wasn't so unstabl-

The smile turned distinctly predatory, "Want me... hurt back?"

Never mind.

******Caliburn Initiative******

The next week passed easily without much incident except the fact that the strange blonde had finally started talking in full sentences much to Lindy's happiness and the Harlaown household slowly fell into a comfortable pattern.

Chrono, whom Naruto had apparently taken to calling 'Uke', much to the TSAB officer's ire would scan the area for any abnormal activities and plot for eventualities along with Amy 'flat chest' at home. With their Device still in traction, Nanoha, which the blonde had apparently designated as 'Pigtails' to her annoyance, took to spending all her nervous energy by visiting every day, bringing over school materials for the two blondes in order to help them get ready for school while Yuuno 'ferret boy' and Arf 'Puppy' would help as much as they could while Lindy took to doing her job as a mother with obvious delight. In fact, the only two people the strange blonde actually called by name were Lindy and Fate.

After reporting in at the TSAB headquarters in person each morning, Naruto would then spend the day either reading, knitting for some unfathomable reason or just plain harassing anybody in sight with the clear exception of Lindy and Fate.

Case in point.

"Flat chest, can you pass me the soya?"

Amy growled, "Will you stop calling me that?" She gestured at the bountiful mounds on her chest, causing Chrono who was sitting opposite of her to get a very nice eyeful, "Are you freaking blind?!"

Naruto stared at her blankly and replied with a flat, "... No and no."

"Why!?" the brown haired girl demanded.

"Because it's funny."

"Rarragh!"

Despite that little spat during dinner, Naruto was honestly surprised to find that he didn't resent the strange family dynamics that he had found himself in, which was admittedly a far cry from his past. That and screwing with the uptight Chrono was a surprisingly fun hobby.

Which was why when the alert that signified that one of Chrono and Amy's traps had bore fruit started blaring; the fidgeting blonde found himself watching Fate and Pigtails fighting three strangers on a floating screen with a tiny amount of apprehension burrowing in his chest.

Just a little bit.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Hai, settle down everyone." The brown haired woman that was Nanoha's homeroom teacher clapped her hands loudly to gain her students' attention. Once the hustle had quieted down, she smiled and beckoned at the open door, allowing two blondes, one with clear blue eyes and the other with crimson pupils, both of them were dressed in the Uminari grade school uniform, "It's a little late, but everyone please welcome Naruto and Fate Harlaown. They just moved into town, that's why they're joining our classes so late."

The male blonde who wore an orange scarf around his neck looked distinctly uncomfortable in his white shorts fidgeted a little while his apparent sister bowed politely and spoke in her usual soft and measured manner, "Good to meet you. I'm Fate, and this is my brother, Naruto. His Japanese isn't very good yet, so please excuse us if we make any mistakes."

Predictably, the boys rushed towards an obviously uncomfortable Naruto while Fate was surrounded by the girls. Growling slightly, the highly uneasy blonde brusquely pushed his way out of the loudly yelling group of boys and stopped in front of the teacher with a rather unpleasant scowl, "Seat. Where?"

Unused to being addressed so curtly by a nine year old, the teacher could only gape for a moment before pointing towards the very back of the class.

Fate gently excused herself from her friends and took her seat beside him, whispering quietly under her breath, "Is something wrong, Naruto? You've been out of sorts all day."

He shook his head slightly before replying, "I... did not like to see you and Nanoha fighting. You weren't hurt _this time_, but I know that you and Nanoha were hospitalized because of them barely a week ago."

"Ah..." She had no idea how to respond to something like that.

Come to think of it, no one had ever said something like that to her or Nanoha. They had just sort of accepted that they had to fight...

Sighing, she sat back into her seat and resolved to talk to Lindy about the blonde's concerns. That and the fact that he had been relegated to the backseat while they were fighting was obviously chaffing at the blonde.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Oi, pigtails. You alright?" The blonde casually drawled out, dropping into the seat beside her, "You didn't seem very pleased about the floating eyeball getting upgraded last night." He remarked quietly.

Nanoha glanced at the easy going blonde who had leaned back on the seat and threw his legs onto the desk in a carefree manner, "We're not supposed to be talking about something like this in school." She stiffly replied, the way he always seemed so callously easy going annoyed the 9 year old girl to no end.

The young alien shrugged, "It's not like there's anyone around anyway. Thanks for earlier by the way."

"Hmmm?"

"Those boys. I could have handled them. But thanks." The blonde replied shortly, referring to the group of boys that had been so receptive of his attendance, yet surrounded him during lunch break with some rather unpleasant motives. Apparently his brushing them off had injured their pride, and they had decided to induct the new guy into the ranks through force when a broom toting Nanoha had smacked her way through all of them before yelling at them for picking on one person in a group.

Needless to say, they ran away with their tails between their legs.

The auburn haired girl stared at the boy for a few moments before giggling, "That's the first time you said something nice to me."

"Don't get used to it." He commented dryly.

Nanoha giggled harder for a bit longer before sobering up, "Raising Heart knew the risks and took it. It's already too late to do anything about it" The girl on his left sighed, "It's just... Raising Heart has been with me for so long... Feeling that she has to go through a dangerous upgrade just because I can't keep up in a fight almost feels... wrong." She glanced at the boy who almost seemed like he was napping, "Besides, you have no right to talk. Why don't you have your own Device anyway? You're already physically cleared for field work aren't you?"

The blonde boy started, telling Nanoha that he had indeed fallen asleep, before chuckling dryly, "I will once they manage to find something that works. The Science Department had a collective fit when every single Device they put in my hands overloaded and fizzled. They're still trying to repair that hole in the wall when Fate loaned me Bardiche for a while."

The two of them laughed at the memories of a roomful of white robed researchers boggling at the hole in the wall that was the result of the blue eyed blonde trying to cast... a tiny E-rank spell. Well hole was something of an understatement, considering the fact that the entire west wall was now missing.

The blonde boy with an orange scarf around his neck, if only because the school absolutely refused to let him dye the school uniform an eye blindingly bright orange and rightfully so as far as Fate and Nanoha were concerned, cracked his neck before standing up, satisfied that his job was done now that Nanoha was smiling again.

He made to leave, "Scold the annoying eyeball for not asking your permission, punch each other if you have to. Then make up. Once that's done, kick their ass and get it done with. My ramen doesn't taste half as good whenever you and Fate are all brooding or bleeding all over the damned carpet."

Nanoha half smiled, half grimaced at the back handed words of comfort, "I see your bedside manners haven't improved." She grinned slyly at the blonde boy who was always seemed to be there whenever she or Fate were injured, poking fun at them with caustic words, and spoke teasingly, "Fate won't like it if you don't say it more sweetly you know. She's very shy."

The blonde gave her a wry grin before standing up. He threw something at her over his shoulder on his way to the door, causing the auburn haired girl to yelp lightly as she tried to juggle whatever it was that the blonde had thrown at her.

Once she was confident that it wouldn't drop out, she opened her fingers and giggled lightly at the item.

It was a tiny handmade puppet of a fox.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Baba." Every single commissioned officer in the room felt the blood drain from their faces at the disrespectful label as the blonde that had spoken rudely flopped onto the offered chair; his entire pose reflected his carefree and somewhat annoyed attitude.

If they were to be honest with themselves, quite a few of them were already planning his funeral.

Then when the old lady in question only chuckled at her newesttitle, they began wondering if there had been something wrong with their lunch, "Brat. Good to see that you're still alive, I was worried your mouth might get you into more trouble than your ass can handle."

"Cut the crap, what did you want to see me for?"

One of her assistants, a brown haired young man growled and stepped forward to chastise the slovenly blonde, "You will not speak to th-"

"Enough." Crowbel cut in before curtly ordering her staff to leave, "Leave us, Uzumaki and I need to talk."

More than one person walked out of the room, planning on launching an investigation into the Requisitions Department for bad mushrooms. When the last of them had left with one left warning glare at the boorish blonde, Crowbel sighed and rubbed her temples, "Must you antagonize my staff every time you come in?"

"I wasn't antagonizing anyone," He smirked at the Crowbel's pose and words which was extremely similar to another old lady. He was starting to think that he had a gift with older women, "I was simply disabusing them of the notion that I care about what they think about me."

Crowbel nodded, fully aware that quite a few of her subordinates held the opinion that she was going senile. She leaned forward and placed her chin on folded hands, "You can't blame them. For the moment, you are officially considered a living, breathing Lost Logia. Quite a few people would do anything to get their hands on your body for further experimentation. Ostensibly putting the responsibility of monitoring you in the hands of a couple of nine year olds probably didn't help either."

He shrugged, "I can't quite care. Thanks to your stupid dimension time warp thingy, I may look like I'm ten, but inside, I'm an eighteen year old mercenary and assassin. My last memories before waking up in fairy land were of a desperate war. After that, a bunch of glaring military toadies sure as hell isn't going to scare me," He paused, "But even I can see how careless allowing me to run around freely is." He allowed before leaning forward with a gleam in his eyes, "Which is why I'm doing this."

Crowbel smiled approvingly as she observed the laid back blonde silently.

To date, reports from the boy's watchers had noted that the blonde had begun to fit in... somewhat... after learning to communicate at a surprising rate and although prone to moments of extreme sarcasm was a surprisingly caring person in private. There was also a simple note from Fate T. Harlown, commenting on his distinct lack of regard for a person's safety. Given, with everything the blonde had shown, she wouldn't entirely put it past the blonde simply playing mind games in an attempt to unsettle everybody and/or push their buttons.

She leaned back and decided to join the game the blonde was playing, "You resent being figuratively chained by the TSAB, so you're testing how far you can push us and to see why I'm letting a massive wild card like you run free or somewhat free anyway."

He raised an eyebrow, "You're not going to pretend otherwise, but you're not going to tell me why either." The blonde noted.

She smirked, "Well, not entirely. But I can tell you that recently, Lost Logias have been reappearing everywhere at an unprecedented rate. At this very moment, we have 16 separate outbreaks all over the galaxy. You are but one of them. Our investigators are getting a little nervous, and I tend to agree with their gut instincts, I wasn't always a desk jockey you know. Something big is coming and I'd rather not have an asset like you sleeping in a bloody jar while things blow up."

The blonde laughed, "Well, **now** you're talking my language. It must really suck when all your kids think the sun shines out of your ass and you have to act all polite in front of them."

Despite the crass metaphor, the purple haired lady could only reluctantly smile at the admittedly refreshing attitude.

Naruto grinned in anticipation, "I'll stick with Pigtails and Fate for now. Though that asset part is somewhat debatable, your stupid protocols don't allow agents to do fieldwork unequipped and your tech boys are still too busy shitting bricks to make me one." He paused and grin, "Though, judging by the fights I've seen so far, I don't really need one."

One lavender eyebrow rose slightly at the rather optimistic judgement, "Oh?" She asked with a pointed look, "Do I want to know?"

The blonde shrugged carelessly, "I might have broken into the Training Division once or twice." He grinned unrepentantly, "By accident of course."

"Of course." Crowbel nodded neutrally as she made a mental note to grill whoever was responsible for security, "Continue."

"Nothing much to say, I just observed some fights and drills, jotted down some notes, stole a barrier jacket or two as target practice... You know, to help me get back into shape. I have to say though, your cadets are pretty damn sad."

The pointed look was getting more and more severe, not that it affected him, "Explain."

"There was this one kid who had 100% accurac-"

"I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"I haven't finished, he had 100% accuracy as long as he was aiming in a completely unrelated direction..." TSAB's chief of Staff couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. The blonde simply leaned back with a bored look, "Kids nowadays. Give them a lightshow and a stick to wave and they think they're professionals. Tsk." He scratched his head and crinkled his nose thoughtfully, "Still haven't figured out how to fly though. That might come in handy."

Crowbel let loose a loud laugh before sobering up, "It's not that they can't make one, your Magical System is simply too different. Currently, all spells are employed by drawing magic from a mage's Linker Core before being moulded through formulas by an experienced mage or a Device into a spell. The same goes for Barrier Jackets, both of them are fed from the Linker Core. You on the other hand not only have a completely different type of self sustained magical system that seems to lean more towards efficient element conversion compared to the Mid-Childan system's shaping of pure magic but it also doesn't seem to need complex formulas or rituals for deployment. Not to mention your stupidly huge Linker Core just overloads anything that tries to connect to it."

Even Bardiche, which had been tentatively loaned to the boy by Fate as an experiment had commented that it had almost broken down under the strain of the blonde's Linker Core. The only reason it had been able to complete that particular mission was because of its recent upgrades to handle sudden surges in magical load.

Naruto smirked, "You realize that everything you just said could be summarized in two words?"

"Oh?"

"I'm. Awesome."

Crowbel glared at him and decided to pop his rapidly swelling ego, "Of course, by definition, that also means that you are unable to employ some of the really destructive large scale spells that our mages can, Easy formulas means smaller spells. So until we can custom craft something that can handle your capacity, your ass is staying where it is right now. On the sidelines." She finished smugly.

One blonde eyebrow rose slowly as the blonde grinned, almost viciously. For now, he would allow the woman to keep thinking he was only capable of small scale spells.

He would look forward to seeing her face when he proved her wrong.

Misinterpreting the weird smile on the blonde's face, Crowbel grinned sneakily, "What's with that stupid smile? Don't tell me that you're thinking about Lindy at a time like this? Kukuku, I heard that you had a crush on Admiral Lindy?"

He paled, "Gyah! That's none of your business BABA!"

"Oya, oya, come and tell this old lady, I might be able to help you, I know better than most how lonely being a widow is. You have good eyes, aiming for someone like her. Bwahahaha."

"This is all Yuuno's fault isn't it?! That stupid blabbermouth ferret boy, all I said was that she looked hot! Why does everyone pick on me instead of him anyway!?"

"Well... because he's obviously better looking than you... and they just think of him as a pet?" Crowbel offered with a half grin, she would never admit it but she loved listening to gos- err... collecting information. It was her duty as one of the leaders of TSAB after all.

"By the way, you might want to watch out for Chrono. He's going to want your head on a silver platter and his spell repertoire is rather nasty for such an innocent little boy."

"That's it. Ferret boy is **dead**."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play John Dreamer – Beginning of a Legend **

"Fuck. I really should've learnt how to fly." Naruto muttered as he scaled up a building with nothing but his hands and chakra. So inconvenient, especially when a poor innocent little boy like him needed to go out on a little unauthorized night time trip or two.

He doubted Lindy would agree.

Reaching the top of the building, he hurriedly wrapped his scarf around his neck and pushed his chakra out a little, ensuring that the wind blew just right so that it billowed out behind him before placing a blank white mask on his face.

Hey, first impressions were important.

"You know, attacking TSAB officers aren't exactly the best way to make friends around here." He commented in the tone of someone who was simply observing the weather.

The four people who were perched on the rooftop below him immediately whirled around with weapons at the ready. Three females and one male, the blonde silently noted, the people who had fought against Nanoha and Fate.

"Who are you?!"

Signum's blade blocked Zafira from advancing, "That white mask, are you with those people who helped us?" she quietly asked the figure sitting on the ledge above them, silhouetted by the moonlight.

The rather... short but shadowy figure leapt into the air, causing all four of them to tense warily as he easily back flipped onto the edge of the roof, blocking their exit, "Nope. In fact, you could say I'm with the TSAB. Reluctantly."

They tensed at his words.

He burst forwards with a knife strike at the ready.

And promptly smashed his face into a wall which collapsed on him.

A muffled, "Ow..." floated from the pile of rubble.

The four Cloud Knights stared at the cursing boy who was slowly climbing out of the pile of rubble like he was insane. They weren't really that far off.

"God damn it. Of all the screwed up things you could do, you made me 10 years old again!? Even thirty years old would've been better, but noooo, you had to make me a damned midget again!" He shook a fist at the sky, "FUCK YOU!"

Vita nudged Shamal, "You're the best with healing magic, is he... okay?"

The blonde support mage of the group sweat dropped as the boy continued cursing at the sky, "Define okay."

Taking a few ragged breaths, the boy with the scarf finally seemed to calm down as he muttered to himself, "Note to self; enough power to dash while I'm 15 equals enough power for me to break a wall with my face when I'm 10." He slapped his cheeks a few times, "Yosh!"

While he was busy muttering to himself, the one he presumed to be the leader, the flame haired woman with the sword stepped forward challengingly, "Enough, we do not want to fight you." Her eyes narrowed at the figure, "Not only are you completely outnumbered and out powered, you don't have a Device, or even any armour. Even a single hit from any of us will kill you."

"Good point. That's not really my problem though. Besides, I don't really care about getting hurt." He settled himself into an offensive stance with one hand curled into a fist, and the other flat out, "What I DO care about however, are people getting hurt. Specifically, people I might ACTUALLY learn to like somewhere down the road."

He blurred and reappeared under a shocked Zafira, "And I have very few of those nowadays." The figure leaned to the side, easily avoiding a knee strike from the only male of the group before his upwards palm blow caught the man on the chin, blasting the guardian beast into the air before the figure blurred and reappeared above his body, a powerful axe kick buried his head in the ground. Gently landing on the prone man's back like a bird of flight, he moved into the same stance again.

"Like I said. Not my problem if you can't hit me." He commented casually.

"ZAFIRA!" The shortest one of the group screamed before glaring the masked boy with a glare, Graf Eisen, Cartridge Load."

**[Roger.]** The hammer in her arms pumped in a shell as its master shouted another order, "Missile HAMMER!"

"Vita, NO!" Someone who could put down a fully armoured Zafira with two simple blows was not someone Vita could handle alone. However, Signum could only grind her teeth together as the youngest of her group exploded forwards with no regard for herself or Signum's orders. And she couldn't blame Vita. She dearly wanted to attack the blonde boy just as bad. The four of them were highly protective of each other, especially before Hayate came into their lives. Through the centuries, the only people they could count on were each other.

The situation was made worse by the fact that the unfazed blonde simply cocked his head and lifted a single finger, catching Graf Eisen's missile point and stopping its attack cold, stunning the smallest Cloud Knight. The boy clad in a midnight blue outfit shifted his position and almost seemed to flow forwards, landing multiple rapid _flicks_ that looked feather light on a surprised Vita's torso before she could pull the hammer back and finishing the combo off with a powerful palm strike that blasted a gasping, Vita skidding backwards beside Shamal.

"Are you alright?" the blonde woman asked worriedly.

"I'm alright, something like that can't pierce my ar-" with an almost surprised look on her face, blood spurted out of her mouth before pitching forward in a dead faint.

"VITA!"

"Huh... so I was right." The figure murmured softly, "Your armour can only block magic attacks or direct blows." He paused and glanced at the girl who was bleeding and jerking spastically in Shamal's arms, "You might want to get her to a doctor. I might have accidentally ruptured something important. A few somethings..." He commented with a slight tinge of regret.

With no choice left, the red haired woman gave her Device an order; "Laevantine, Snake form!" roaring with rage, she flicked the chain whip in her hands, surrounding Shamal and herself in a protective storm of flame and steel as the elongated tip of her blade surged at the figure like a snake strike.

Eyes widening, Naruto back flipped out of the sharp strike before putting on a spurt of speed as he ran around the rooftop to avoid the blade that was following him, driven by its user's rage. In the middle of the rooftop slash battlefield was a tornado, with the four Wolkenritter safe in the eye of the flaming tornado. There was no way she was going to allow their attacker to get anywhere near them until she could figure out how he was fighting.

Furious red eyes gleamed at him from between the chain links. Those same eyes widened as the figure skidded a stop and ducked under the blades chasing him, before he began running straight at the tornado in what looked like an apparent suicide attack.

He thrust one arm out, for a split second, Signum noticed some sort of palm sized blue orb in his hand. His arm was shredded to pieces but it did it's job, the tiny orb somehow managed to blow open a hole in Signum's defence. Darting into the storm of steel and fire, he lunged forward to finish the attack with a powerful punch.

Acting like the seasoned warrior she was, Signum counterattacked with her off hand, their fists clashing in a class cross counter.

Unfortunately for the boy, he had misjudged the length of his arm; his fist only managed to glance of her breast plate while Signum's fire encased fist landed a direct hit on his cheek, shattering the mask on his face and sending him rocketing into a wall where he was embedded a foot into the brick and mortar.

Despite having immense difficulties breathing, Signum took the change in the battle's momentum to wrap their assailant in her chain sword with a flick of Laevantein. She jerked on her blade, causing the separated links to cut into his dark blue suit, "Before I kill you, what style are you using? I have never seen a non magic user stand up to us like you have. I will honour you for your defeat."

The figure, whose face was enshrouded in shadows laughed lowly without any humour, "Style? Fists that were designed to kill do not deserve the honour of being named."

She stared at the boy emotionlessly, "So be it. Cartridge Load."

The chain links lit on fire, engulfing the figure.

******Caliburn Initiative**** **


	2. Second Step: Made to Kill

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 2**

**Second Step: Made to Kill  
**

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Nanoha is owned by Seven Arcs and Naruto is owned by Kishimoto.**

It's summer. Fuck this heat.

**Soundtrack List**

Yuna Ito – I Don't Want to Miss A Thing

Legend of Heroes OST - Whereabouts of the Stars

Angel Beats OST – Ichiban no Takaramono

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Vi-Vita?!" the blonde woman placed her hands one the spasming girl's chest and pushed as much of her power in as she could afford, "Pl-Please be alright!"

The red haired girl coughed even more blood out and her eyes slowly dimmed even as her heaving chest slowed.

"N-No!"

"It'll be alright, we still have time." A quiet whisper said from her side, causing Shamal to start as a rough hand palmed a small black ball and pushed it into Vita's bloody mouth before pouring some water from a bottle into her mouth to help her swallow.

Shamal growled and swiped the masked man away from her and Vita, from the corner of her eyes she confirmed that Signum was rushing towards them, leaving a burning corpse behind, "Who are you!? Are you that man's accomplice?"

The masked man in the same midnight blue suit with a numerous pockets on his trousers held up his hands in surrender as he slowly retreated from them, "I mean you no harm; I just wished to... let you and your friends know that my friends are off limits." He seemed to glance at Vita, whose pallor had returned a little and breathing had eased, "I'm a little out of practice, it was supposed to just knock her out instead of rupturing her lungs." He admitted somewhat sheepishly, "Fortunately this isn't the first time I made that mistake, and have a few counteragents for it. The pill I fed her will help stabilize her core and regeneration. The rest will be up to her. The wolf will be fine, but he might have a pretty horrible headache for a few days."

Signum sensing no hostility from the man slowly sheathed her blade, but made no other effort to be welcoming, "Why?" She asked coldly.

They got the impression that the boy was amused, "I've heard somewhere that when two high level fighters cross fists, they can understand each other... that was enough for me." He nodded at them but did not elaborate as he stepped closer to the edge of the roof.

The pink haired woman hesitated but nodded, "I'm... sorry about your friend. He was a good fighter." She rubbed her busted chest plate and winced a little as she pulled the piece off, she did not want to know what a direct hit would have done to her if just a simple brush had warped her armour like so much tin foil.

The masked man cocked his head in amusement, "What friend?"

"That... friend?" Signum gestured at the burning pile of... logs, when she whirled around again, the masked man was nowhere to be seen.

"Wha-Whe? Whatever..." Heaving a sigh, Signum tiredly took a seat beside Vita and gently brushed red bangs out of her face, "Is she alright?"

Shamal laid her hands on Vita again and concentrated for a long moment. When the blonde woman's shoulders sagged again, Signum felt her mouth go dry until Shamal smiled in relief, "She's fine. Her core is no longer fluctuating and her lungs have repaired enough for her to breathe again."

Signum nodded coolly and made a mental reminder to never let the masked man get his hands on her if they ever crossed fists again. Unlike with Fate where their fight had been almost enjoyable, like two knights against each other, the boy went straight for the jugular. Knight Armour or not, a simple brush from his fingers was some of the most lethal things she had ever seen in her long service to the Book of Darkness. The fact that he did not mean to do either, only made it worse.

It meant that he was holding a lot more than just this back.

"Neh, Signum..."

The red haired woman looked up at where a downcast Shamal was taking care of a downed Zafira, "Yes?" She replied quietly.

"Maybe... we should stop?"

The leader of the Cloud Knights slowly nodded as she thought Shamal's suggestion over, "We can't, Hayate needs us. Our only chance of healing Hayate... of saving her life is to fill the Book of Darkness. In any case... it's too late."

"I see..."

Signum held up her hands, "But I understand that you are having doubts about what we're doing... I propose that for now we go after other non sentient creatures for their Cores. It'll be slower, but at least that way, we won't step on any toes and keep that boy's sights off us, or at least not until we can confidently counter him."

Shamal smiled brightly in relief and thanks.

Standing up with a straight back, Signum carefully picked up Vita, "Let's get Vita and Zafira home. I don't think they're in any condition to harvest Cores for the moment and we've got to hide this from Hayate as well."

"Understood."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Aerosmith – I Don't Want to Miss A Thing**

Naruto gingerly tip toed onto the porch and turned the doorknob, wincing a little at contact with the smooth grained wood of the door as he pushed it open slightly and stepped in. Gently making his way through the hall, he was about to go upstairs when he heard a deliberate cough.

"And where were you at this time of the night?" He winced again and spun around to face a sleepy eyed , frowning Lindy, who had been sleeping on the couch if her rumpled dress was any indication, " I was so worried when I realized you weren't in your room." Her nose wrinkled a little, "And what is that burnt smell?"

The blonde boy laughed awkwardly, "I was uh... training. Couldn't sleep."

The green haired lady narrowed her eyes at him and grabbed his left hand, pulling back the sleeves of his blue suit, revealing a burnt arm, "What, exactly, is this?" She asked dangerously.

Naruto pulled back the arm hastily, "I just got injured training, Nothing big." In front of her very eyes, the raw red burns seemed to slowly disappear without barely even scratch. Dead skin peeled off the formerly burnt area, revealing new healthy pink skin and Lindy's eyes widened incredulously.

Crap. He should have waited until the healing was done.

"As long as you're in my home and in my care I expect you to be honest, young man." She gestured at the arm, "Now tell me what you were doing."

He held up his hands in surrender, "I was really just training and burnt myself a little, and I've always had some pretty good regeneration." He smiled lopsidedly, "Perks of being me I suppose."

"Show me." She ordered him shortly, Admiral Lindy showing through the motherly persona she usually wore.

The blonde's eyes turned into cold blue pinpricks, "Answer my questions first. How long have I been floating in that stupid place before I was recovered? And does the TSAB know anything about where I came from? The old lady has too many agendas at stake to give me a straight answer no matter how many times I asked, and nothing was written in my files when I snuck a look."

Lindy hesitated at the cold look before relenting; what he was asking for was classified information but it was his right to know after all, "If I answer this, will you show me?"

Naruto nodded slowly before motioning for her to go first.

"We don't know." When Naruto opened his mouth to call bullshit, Lindy stalled him by holding her hands up, "I'm being honest. Time flows strangely in dimensional space. You could have been floating for ten years or ten thousand years. While floating, your body would have kept changing, getting older and younger at random, until you finally froze over. As for which dimension you came from..." She shrugged helplessly, "Your magical trail had been decayed too badly for us to track it down. That alone told us you were adrift for at least a couple of years."

Lindy would never know it, but her frankness went a long way to gaining the strange boy's trust.

"I... I see..." So he was stuck, he would never be able to see his friends grow old, have children... He would never be Hokage.

The blonde rubbed the bridge of his nose and chuckled humourlessly, the words of his detractors while he was a child rung loud and clear in his mind. Looks like they got their wish. Still... there was a chance. They didn't know how long he had been adrift, the possibility that it hadn't been too long since then remained.

He clenched his fist, he wouldn't give up. And if there was one thing Naruto Uzumaki was, it wasn't a quitter.

"It's not that bad. We can be your new family." Lindy replied hopefully.

Naruto gave her a dry smile, "You'll have to forgive me if I don't stop looking."

"Understandable. As long as you give us a chance." Lindy warmly said.

"I'll try... as long as Chrono doesn't fry my ass." He muttered under his breath, somehow he got the impression that the black haired boy would take the offer to be family in a completely different direction.

Sighing, the blonde led Lindy back out to a clearing behind the house where a copse of trees stood with a resigned expression. Stuck to the last standing tree was a standard issue Investigator's Barrier Jacket, every other tree in the clearing had already been reduced to burnt or warped kindling. Littered all over the ground were rubber balls for some reason.

Lindy calmly watched the boy stand in front of the tree and slip into a strange stance, he breathed in slowly. When his eyes snapped open, his arms flared with a ghostly blue flame and in one smooth lunge, the blonde began rapidly flicking at the Barrier Jacket so fast that his arms turned into a blue blur, each hit that connected emitted a hollow explosion of air.

Twisting his feet, the sweating blonde spun and using the centrifugal force, blasted the tree with a simple palm blow before leaping back.

Letting out a gusty sigh, the blonde set his arms back down and allowed the flare to die down before showing her fresh burns on his arms with a critical smile as he seemed to inspect the tree with squint, "This is about the only technique I had that could counter the standard issue barriers that all your mages seem to have, so I decided that I needed some practice."

That was a lie, he had others.

Unfortunately, they were also liable to turn the barrier... and the city it was in and everything in aforementioned city into chunky pasta.

Satisfied with his work, the blonde noted casually, "Too much and the tree generally turns into charcoal, too little and it doesn't do anything but with my control the way it is, the overflow burns my arms something bad."

"Directly manipulating your magic, to the point where it becomes visible to the normal eye, is indeed impressive and not something a lot of mages can do, but I still don't see what's so special about it aside from its corrosive properties." Lindy remarked blandly.

The blonde smiled, "Most don't until it's a little too late."

He snapped his fingers. The loud click reverberated in the clearing.

Behind him, the tree creaked before slowly toppling over and Lindy's eyes widened when the tree landed with a loud crash.

The tree was but an empty shell, leaving the barrier itself completely undamaged.

The blonde tossed the wide eyed Lindy a casual wave over his shoulder as he entered the house with at a lazy pace, "I'm going to bath. Feel free to keep standing there."

The mother in her was utterly shocked and more than a little scared.

The commander on the other hand was critically assessing the blonde's combat potential; a technique that was able to completely bypass barriers and deal incredible internal damage was not something just any mage was capable of doing. Of course, without a device, he lacked the manoeuvrability or aerial ability that Fate and Nanoha had, or large shooting type spells such as the Divine Buster or Chrono's Stinger Blade, not to mention that the blonde had yet to go up against different types of protection, such as fields or deployed auras. So that greatly limited the blonde to on land close range combat by default.

Still... Maybe Head Investigator Crowbel had a point, he had potential.

She'd have to look into the Device Archive again, maybe a wearable- type? Knuckledusters would certainly suit his style it seemed.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Crowbel-sama. Uzumaki-san is here for his daily check in." A brown haired man politely announced the blonde's arrival to the purple haired lady before giving Naruto a warning glare not to say anything bad. He was about to be disappointed.

The woman barely looked up from her papers and waved shortly, "Let him in."

Giving the blonde who had plopped himself down onto the available chair and slapped his feet onto her table a quick glare, she brushed his feet off with a gesture, "I heard you were injured."

"I was." The blonde agreed but offered no other explanation other than a smirk.

She motioned at the report on her table, "Lindy put in a request to ask for a few cadets help you train, with particular emphasis on those that excel in casting barriers and fields for some reason. Care to enlighten me?"

Naruto made a mental reminder to do something nice for the green haired lady maybe that green tea she liked so much, "Not really. I was just interested on how the Mid-Childan systems worked, compared to my own. You might want to give them hazard pay though, they're going to get roughed up a little."

Crowbel sighed, "At any rate, there was something I needed to talk to you about. Your comprehensive medical report came in and there was something strange about your Linker Core." She steepled her fingers while the blonde actually got an interested look, "When we first took a look at it, we thought that the reason it was so huge was an abnormal side effect of you drifting in dimensional space, but then we took a closer look and realized you actually had TWO Linker Cores, or rather, you have a parasite melded into your Core..."

Naruto winced, "**Gyah! **I got it! I got it! Now quit yelling! I wasn't even the one that said that!"

Crowbel blinked, "I wasn't yelling?" She half asked, half stated when the blonde who was wincing and digging a finger into his ears as if something was shouting at him raised one finger and shushed her.

She quirked an eyebrow at the boy.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing... he just didn't like being called a parasite."

"He...?" the Head Investigator of TSAB blinked warily when she connected the dots, of course the blonde may have been just screwing with her but she doubted it, "You can... communicate with _him?_ What did he say?"

"You want the full version or the polite version?" the blonde questioned with a grin.

"The... polite one?" A nonplussed Crowbel replied.

"I have a name; please do not call me parasite." Naruto paraphrased, "His ego demands that he called The Great Furball." The yelling in his head was totally worth it.

Crowbel blinked again and felt a headache coming on, "And the full version?

Naruto smiled and promptly obliged her request, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A PARASITE YOU BAGGY OLD WHOR-"

She instantly lunged forward and clamped her palms over the blonde's grinning mouth. He rolled his eyes as if to say _'You DID ask for the full version.' _

Sighing, she made sure the blonde wasn't going to continue before speaking, "Alright... so you already know about _him _and it appears that you two are on relatively good terms on each other." Purple irises narrowed at the blonde, "That IS what his saying and not you isn't it?"

The blonde shrugged and slowly removed the palms keeping his mouth shut before tossing an innocent look at the older woman, "I may have ad libbed a little. Nothing he wasn't going to say himself I assure you."

"Right..." she sighed and fell back into her chair, "At any rate, any attempts to probe it deeper has failed. Something in it seems to be repelling all of our spells, almost like it has anti magic properties. Another reason why all our Devices are not working for you properly, even though they are equipped with the Cartridge System if I might add, so we'd like to ask you to let us run a few more tests on you. We can't take the chance that you ... it might infect our other mages," Seeing the look on the blonde's face, she pushed forward before he could protest, "You wouldn't want to infect Fate or Lindy right? We have no idea how an anti magic virus may affect mages. At worst, their lives might be endangered."

When the blonde simply grunted, Crowbel decided that he needed another push and dangled her bait in front of his nose, "If you agree, you don't have to go to school."

Needless to say, the blonde instantly agreed.

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Legend of Heroes OST – Whereabouts of the Stars**

He had been tricked. Bamboozled. Cheated. That baggy old whore!

"Harlaown-SAN! Are you listening?" a tinny impatient voice drilled into his consciousness.

"Damn right I'm listening. I'm not paying attention though." Naruto muttered, low enough that his class teacher couldn't hear it, "I'm listening, Ojima-san." He finally said out loud in a flat tone.

"It's your turn at bat." The heavily muscled PE teacher said with some frustration.

Sighing, Naruto took the offered wooden bat and stood there with a scowl on his face. He was going to get that old bitch back for this; he was only allowed to skip school as long as he was being tested. Any time he **wasn't**, was fair game. The inspection ended before class started, go figure and the next one was on a Sunday.

Halfway through his daydreams about kicking Crowbel out the nearest space hatch, some inconsequential classmate wound up his arm and pitched a fastball at the blonde.

9 year olds, being 9 year olds, the fastball went awry and the baseball slammed straight into a daydreaming Naruto's face.

"DEADBALL! Naruto-san? You alright?!" his classmates rushed over to him only for the blonde to give them a blank look, "Huh?" he glanced at the ball rolling on the floor, "Oh... that's a walk isn't it?"

When his classmates and PE teacher dumbly nodded to his question, they then dumbly watched him drop the bat and began walking to first base at a leisurely pace and a stupid smile on his face.

The PE teacher coughed awkwardly, "I... uh... think we should end the game here. Someone please take Naruto-san to the infirmary. Game goes to A team!"

"Uoooh! You did great Naruto-san! You won the game!"

"Kyaah! Harlaown-sama is soo cool! He's so good at sports!"

Every single one of them rushing towards the blonde to congratulate him was stopped cold by a wintry glare from the blonde himself, he snorted, "I didn't win you anything. I wasn't paying attention and it was a fluke." He said coldly.

"Kyaah! He's so modest! He's so cool!" a group of girls squeed.

He wondered if he shouldn't have dropped that bat after all, why in the world 9 year old girls so persistent.

Sighing, he brushed them off with some resignation; they obviously weren't going to listen, "Please do not bother me. I need to change."

He was fully aware that he was acting not quite unlike a certain childhood rival, but in his defence, he wasn't trying to look cool or aloof. PE was the only time that he was able to enjoy himself by moving his body; it wasn't his fault that all the other males in the vicinity were the physical equivalent of Shikamaru to him. Just like it wasn't his fault that he could jump five times higher than anybody else in class, or shoot hoops all the way from the other end of the court, it was nothing compared to shuriken practice. The blonde was genuinely annoyed by all the attention, was it really so hard to just leave him alone?

This world was so strange, he was popular because he won a game because he got hit in the face with a ball... the hell?

Not to mention the way those girls looked at him was rather... disturbing.

Just thinking about their drooling eyes made him feel like he desperately needed to bath... "They're NINE YEARS OLD for God's sake! Was this how Sasuke felt?! WAS THIS WHY HE RAN AWAY!?"

"An... Ano... who are you shouting at?"

"Eeek!" Naruto spun around defensively only to find Fate watching him with a vaguely worried look on her face. He sighed in relief, "Oh, it's just you. What are you doing here anyway?"

She smiled worriedly at him, "Ojima-san asked me to take you to the infirmary, are you really alright?"

He waved at his pseudo sister, "I'm really alright. A simple tap like that won't hurt me. I'm more annoyed than I am hurt."

She fidgeted with her fingers, "You're really having trouble fitting in aren't you?"

He smiled wryly, "I wouldn't say trouble. I just can't really care less at the moment. I just sort of...," He made a vague gesture, "Just want to be left alone, and I can't do that here. Sitting for hours in class is bad enough, but PE is the only chance I get to move all day and everyone keeps watching me or something." He sighed, "I'm sorry; I'm not making much sense am I?"

It was perhaps a sign of his maturity that he hadn't pranked his class and his teacher to kingdom come out of sheer boredom. 10 hours of goddamned classes each day, filled with droning voices and irritating, energetic, children. Earth school was even worse than the Academy, at least there, they could occasionally fight. Physical movement here was limited to stupidly simple exercises or games.

GAMES.

"No... I think I understand. I've never been to school either," Fate smiled softly, "Being surrounded by so many other people makes me a little jumpy too."

Naruto grinned, "That makes two of us then." He pursed his lips, "Want to get away from it all?"

Fate's eyes widened at the offer, "Ge-Get away from it? How?"

The blonde seemed to shimmer away and the next thing she knew was that someone had pulled her legs out from underneath her, "Eep! Naruto!"

Naruto grinned at the girl in his arms, "Hold on tight." The muscles in his legs bunched up and he leapt straight into the air, dashing from wall to wall with ease before vaulting out of a window with one arm, screaming girl in hand, "Kyaaah!"

After a few moments of extreme movement, Fate finally stopped screaming when she realized the two of them weren't moving anymore.

"Open your eyes." Naruto's voice breathed in her ear.

Crimson eyes hesitantly opened, before widening to the max at the expanse of clear blue sky and puffy white clouds, "Where... are we?"

"The highest point I could find in school. Top of Seishou Academy's Clock tower." The male replied before gently setting her down on her feet. The blonde opened his arms wide and whooped loudly before falling onto his back as he laughed loudly, "Finally. Freedom!"

Fate giggled at his actions, even as her breath was taken away by the view of Uminari City lay before them like a toy town.

Naruto stared at the stunned girl watching the view before them with a quirk of his lips, "You're enjoying his more than I expected you to." He commented quietly.

"Eh? Why would you think that?" Fate questioned him softly.

"You can fly can't you?" He sat up in a lotus position and vaguely gestured at the town before them, "I thought you would have been bored of something like this."

"Oh..." She pondered the question silently; all things considered, it was a pretty accurate judgement and she wondered why she was so surprised as well.

She took a seat beside the other blonde, "I guess... when everything's said and done, I've only done it for fights. I've never... stopped and just took the time to look at the view like this. Especially not when... I was still fighting against Nanoha-chan."

He grinned mischievously, "Sure didn't stop you from screaming all the way up here."

The girl blushed, "I-It's different."

"Oh come on, you can fly like you were born to do it, and yet you scream with just a few jumps?" Naruto teased the blonde girl.

"That's different!" She huffed, "Bardiche is under my control, that wasn't!"

It was obvious by the smirk that he was going to hold this against her for the rest of her life regardless of what she was saying. Puffing her cheeks out, Fate poked his side, "You haven't answered my question, you're having trouble making friends haven't you?"

"I can't have problems making friends if I don't want to make any in the first place. In fact, you say that everything is going according to plan." Naruto pointed out.

Crimson eyes met sapphire ones, "Why don't you want to make friends?"

Fate watched as the boy made a conflicted expression before it turned to one of resignation, he fell on his back and lifted his hands out towards the sky, "It's something stupid."

"Tell me." She insisted in her own quiet way.

The blonde struggled to put his troubles into words, it wasn't something he felt like hiding, at least not with Fate, "I've never had much friends from where I came from, even before I left, there weren't many. I'm afraid if I DO make some here, enough to outweigh the ones back home... I won't want to go back. That scares me because... I've never really had that much to go back to anyway. Not after that war..."

He chuckled, "Stupid right?" the hand that was still facing the sky made grasping motions, "I wonder if they're up on one of those stars up there..."

Fate bit her lip, and wondered what she could do, even if he didn't realize it, for that one split second, Naruto had looked so lost and alone and it struck her that just like her, he was just another person trying to find an anchor in his life.

"Stay at home tonight."

Naruto blinked, "Huh?"

"Stay at home tonight. Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan are coming over to study for the exams. I'll introduce you to them." She stared at him with resolute eyes, daring him to refuse.

Naruto chuckled with slight exasperation, "Fine, fine. You win. I'll stay home tonight."

"Good." She nodded lightly, "In return, tell me who Sasuke is."

He gave her a dry look, "Oi, oi, this isn't fair. This is all give and no take for me."

"It's not fair because I'm ordering you as your senior."

"Pushy girl, you're never going to get married like that." He noted with a smirk.

Fate huffed but refused to let him change the topic.

With a crooked smile he began, "Sasuke was... an idiot."

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Where's Lindy and Uke?" Naruto asked the brown haired girl as he dropped his bag and himself onto the couch, "It's rare that Uke isn't around fiddling with something."

Amy breathed deeply and tried not to let her temper show, "They have some business at Headquarters, so it's just me and you kids for tonight." She finished a little maliciously, knowing that his age was a soft spot in the blonde's defence.

"That means you're in charge of us kids for tonight eh baa-chan?"

"Gyaaah! I'm just 18!"

"Ahaha..." Fate laughed awkwardly as she played her usual role of peacemaker, "I'm sure that it means that Lindy-san and Chrono-san really trust in you."

The brown haired girl quickly regained her confidence, "Ohoho! That's it isn't it? They trust me!"

Naruto let her continue but smirked as he enjoyed his little victory. The small things mattered after all, he'd take every bit he got.

"That's right, besides it's a quiet night, I'm sure nothing bad will-"

The alarm began ringing and Naruto sighed, knocking his head back onto the couch, "Why'd you have to tempt fate?"

The blonde girl cocked her head even as Amy dropped the pumpkin she was holding, "Tempt... me?"

"Never mind, it's just a joke."

"This is no time for jokes!" The panicking brown haired girl ran off towards the monitoring room. The three younger ones shared a look before following Amy.

"Systems have detected the Wolkenritter, they're on a deserted planet." She wrung her hands as everyone watched a red haired woman fighting against some sort of huge worm, "At best, even if we contact Headquarters now, our forces won't get there for another 45 minutes or so."

Fate squinted at the screen, "Why... are they fighting something like that?"

Amy chewed her lips, "We've been getting reports about them attacking creatures, draining their Cores to fill the Book of Darkness. It seems like they've changed the modus operandi so we changed to match but I never expected to catch them this early."

The blonde boy who was leaning against the wall shrugged, "Why bother? They're not doing anyone harm are they?"

Their senior shook her head, brown bangs bouncing, "They may not be doing anything to harm people, but they're still filling up that book. All the records we could find say that it can only be used for destruction. With something of that kind of power, in the end, their Master going to hurt someone anyway and we have to stop them before they do."

Fate leaned in, "Amy, can you teleport me there?" she asked softly "I have something I need to do with Signum." She glanced at Nanoha who was worriedly watching another screen that depicted a short red haired girl that Naruto recognized as the one called Vita. It seemed like she was back on her feet, "Fighting them may be the only way, but we want to understand why they are doing this even though they know its wrong... It's the only thing I can do for people like me, isn't that right Nanoha-chan?"

"Un. Let's go help them!"

Amy hesitated before nodding, "Understood. Please get ready; the teleporters will be ready in a moment."

**Play Angel Beats OST – Ichiban no Takaramono**

As the two girls ran off to their respective rooms, the blonde boy stayed behind, resolutely staring at the screen with arms folded. No one noticed blood dripping from his clenched fists.

'**Why do you want to help them? You have your own troubles. Finding more like this is stupid.'**

'They're my... people I might learn to like.'

It snorted**, 'Weren't you the one that said you didn't want friends? Besides, it's not like you really want to help them isn't it?'**

He chewed his lower lip, 'I don't know what you're talking about. '

"**Is it? Or do you not want to admit that this is just for your own self satisfaction? There are so many others you can help, so why these two children? Is it because they are the only ones in front of your eyes? What about those that aren't? Pfft, helping your friends my ass. Just focus on your own problems, find our way back to that pitiful lump of mud. Become Hokage, make babies and die peacefully. You already earned it after all.'** The voice snorted, **'It's not like they can't handle it anyway. Face it, they DON'T need you.'**

'You know... I'm really happy that you're here.' He cricked his neck and leaned forward to stare at a screen filled with nothing but sand. Off to the side, Fate was battling Signum.

The presence sounded stunned, **'What? Why?!'**

He grinned, 'It kinda sucks, but even if I die, even if I was thrown into space or whatever, you're always here with me, never changing, aren't you? Speaking of which, you never told me you liked babies.'

The voice growled and the presence in his mind retreated.

Probably embarrassed, pity he couldn't see the huge ball tsundere's face right now. That would've been one for posterity.

"How fast can you teleport me to where Fate is?" Naruto asked blandly.

Amy who had been focusing on the fight between Fate and Signum could only stare at him stupidly, "Wha-huh?"

"I asked how fast can you get me to where Fate is?" Naruto repeated his question slowly, as if talking to a child.

"What're you talking about?" Her eyes bulged, "I can't do something like that! It's against all protocols to send a civilian into a warzone."

"What about Fate and Nanoha?" he retorted.

"They're... They're Contract Mages. It's not the same."

Sighing, he grabbed Amy's shoulders and turned her to face the screen that he had been looking at, "You need to get me there now or Fate will get hurt. There's someone out there other than the Wolkenritters."

"What in the world are you... talking... about?" Her eyes boggled as she saw what the blonde was seeing, footsteps were appearing in the sand dunes, slowly approaching the battlefield, footsteps that belonged to someone using flawed invisibility.

"I... I can't! The systems are down; I only have enough power to send an alert to Headquarters! If I send you there, we won't have anything left!" Amy cried out in conflict.

Naruto shook her lightly, his face set in stone, "Amy. AMY! Listen to me. Fate is in danger." He stared straight into her eyes, "I need you to do this for me. Please, Amy."

A long silent moment passed, the only sounds in the room came from the monitor which was throwing up alert after alert of someone invading their security and their breathing.

Amy set her jaw, "Alright, get in the teleporter while I get something."

Naruto smiled crookedly, "You'll make a good leader some day."

She arched an eyebrow at him, "Some day?"

Naruto nodded, "Some day."

"Get in there and shut up brat."

He grinned as the older girl pushed something into his hands. He inspected it with one raised eyebrow, "What's this?"

"It's an advanced Trans-Locational Device." She replied archly.

"It's a damned ski board, besides Devices don't work for me."

"Just shut up and get in, we only have enough juice to get you within a kilometre or two of where Fate-chan is. That thing will get you the rest of the way, and don't worry about it blowing up. It doesn't draw from you so it won't overload, it has its own power source. Just put your feet into those holders and it'll fly according to your orders." Amy yelled out as she rapidly typed in orders, processing them faster than the virus could shut them down.

Naruto scratched his cheek even as a green glow surrounded his body, finding it rather funny how a panicking 18 year old girl could outsmart a building full of technicians and scientists.

Amy saluted him, "If I get fired for this, you're taking responsibility for me!"

He returned the salute with a sloppy one of his own, "Fuck no."

And then he was gone.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"You've improved, ever since this battle started, you've been getting faster and faster and more efficient with your moves. I couldnt keep up with you at all in that last few moves." A scratched up Signum gave a bleeding Fate an approving nod., "It was only thanks to my training that I repelled you."

"Thank you... You're very skilled as well. No matter what I do, you and Laevantein continuously overpower me in the close and mid range." Fate replied, even hurt and bleeding badly, she managed to keep her soft and measured tone as she wiped the blood away from her left eye, "This next hit will decide the battle. I will have nothing left after that."

"Understood. I will give my best as well then."

"Bardiche, Sonic Form." Fate softly ordered.

[Yes, sir.]

The two of them burst forwards with a blast of speed, sending a cloud of sand up behind her, yelling out their respective battle cries when crimson eyes widened incredulously, her body coming to an abrupt stop as it dangled uselessly; a ghostly arm poking out from her chest.

"Wha-what?"

"FATE!"

The man whose mask was decorated by a little blue crystal on the centre of his forehead unlike the boy who attacked them a few days ago motioned with his hand that was clasping a golden orb, Fate's Linker Core cocked her head, "Sympathy for your enemy, Signum?"

"It's called respect! Unhand her!" the rose haired woman spat out.

The masked man opened his fist, allowing the orb to float forward, "Just do your jobs. There's no value in your existence as programs otherwise."

Signum cursed, the man was right even if his words were hateful.

"WHERE ARE THE BRAKES ON THIS DAMNED THING?!" the masked man looked up, just in time to receive a faceful of ski board, sending all three of them into the ground in a crumpled pile.

Signum could only blink at the incredulousness of the situation.

"Ow..." Naruto spat some sand out of his mouth, he wanted to curse Amy but was too busy cleaning sand out of his mouth at the moment when he remembered his mission, "Fate, Fate?! Where are you?!"

He scrambled towards the limp and bleeding girl dressed in a black leotard, "You alright?"

Hazy eyes futily tried to focus, but she didn't need her eyesight to recognize that voice, "Na-Naruto? What ar...are you doing here?"

The blonde snorted, "Helping you what else. Saving helpless little girls is my hobby after all."

The blonde girl smiled, "What a bad... hobby. Neh... we're friends right?"

Naruto bit his lip before smiling, "What the heck are you talking about at a time like this, don't start hallucinating on me, Fate. Gotta get you home first."

A shadow fell over them as the masked man stood up again with one hand stretched out, a decorated card held in his hand, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that. Bind!"

Ropes made of purple hazy smoke tightened around his arms, causing Naruto to drop Fate to the ground with a grunt, "Garrgh!"

The masked man casually strode towards a near unconscious Fate and dipped his hand into her chest, pulling out an orb right in front of a grunting Naruto's face, "I'm sorry about this boy. But you'll learn this is for the best. She'll be alright, although she might not be able to cast magic ever again, then again, that might be a good thing for you isn't it?" the man seemed to smile behind his mask, "You don't have to save her again." He stood up and tossed the orb towards a torn Signum, "Take it and leave."

The blonde boy whose eyes were hidden by his bangs growled as he struggled to stand up, "I thought better of you, Signum."

He took one step forward, veins in his muscles standing out, the chains binding him started to creak.

"Don't waste your time, that spell isn't something a normal person can break without magic. Just stay there until the spell fails, then take Fate-chan to the hospital. It's easier that way." The masked man casually ordered.

Naruto began laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"If there's one thing you need to know about me, it's that nothing. NOTHING. Chains me. I do what I want." A wave of energy pulsed from the strange boy, pushing the masked man away, "And right now, I want to help Fate."

For a moment, just a simple moment, Signum thought she saw a phantom forming behind the strange blonde boy she did not recognize, a grinning canine skull. Everything in her was telling her to run and never stop, that there was a massive predator looking down at her with amusement.

He flexed again and the chains simply shattered.

Then he disappeared with a soft puff of sand.

One single upper cut blew through her barriers with ease, the masked man falling to the same.

No finesse, tricks or special moves, just pure brute force. Fortunately for her, the blonde whose eyes had turned a menacing purple decided that the masked man was a more attractive target.

Even with a cracked mask, the man defended himself proficiently against the rapid blows from the intense blonde, deflecting them away from his body until he locked the blonde's joint, throwing the boy into the air and fired a sharp knee strike at the defenceless boy. The blonde seemed shocked for a moment, before he grinned, taking the knee strike to the face, only for the masked man to gape as his knee passed straight through the blonde's face.

An elbow dug into his spine from the back, sending him stumbling forwards, "Gurk!"

He blinked, he was sure that attack had hit. Leaping back up, he swept the blonde off his feet and returned the favour with a hammer strike. The blonde seemed to phase away again, leaving the masked man completely open for a vicious kick to the jaw from below, "That's it! You're annoying!" Lunging forward, he grappled with the boy only for him to dematerialize again, leaving him holding nothing but air and savage elbow smash to the face, "How are you doing that?!" he demanded from the boy who seemed to be literally teleporting around him through some unknown skill.

The boy who was dancing around his attacks shrugged even as their legs locked with each other in a powerful kick, "Skill."

Someone kicked his knee from behind, and his eyes widened as he realized there was two of the blonde. Both blonde's bent their knees locking the man's knee into place between them and preventing him from escaping, both of them then whirled in sync making a graceful circle that finished with a glowing blue orb in hand slamming the attack into his front and back simultaneously, "Rasengan!"

He screamed painfully as the orbs ground into flesh, a thankful green spell array that would take him away from the ridiculous boy appearing above his head was the last thing the masked man saw as he fell into a blessed darkness.

"Ack!" Both blonde boys fell onto each other when the masked man disappeared from their trap, slamming their respective orbs into the other; sending both blonde's flying into the sand dunes comically.

"Ow... Come to think of it, I never actually tried getting hit with my own Rasengan. Not fun." Naruto muttered slowly stood up while his clone puffed away. Wincing as he touched his chest, he began moving towards a stationary Signum who was standing over Fate in a protective stance.

When the two of them stood face to face, the rose haired woman, "I have no excuse." She said curtly as she stared at the blonde with a whirl tattooed onto his chest, a result of his own technique, a technique she finally recognized as the one that had blown away Laevantein's _Fire Tornado_ in an earlier match.

The blonde boy pushed past her without a word and heaved an unconscious Fate onto his back.

Signum watched the two of them leave before she called at them one last time, "Tell her it was my loss."

"Tell her yourself."

******Caliburn Initiative******


	3. Third Step: You're Late

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 3 **

**Third Step: You're Late  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

Mind you, this chapter is a little short (No, the bastard that calls himself my brother isn't back yet), but it sort of just worked out that way. Continuing into the next arc would have just wasted the impact of this chapter. So my apologies but I hope you guys enjoy this.

Oh and we'd just like to say; those that read our other works, Kur0Kishi has a little present for you guys. Remember how we posted three chapters in a row last year for Christmas and New Years?

Look forward to something similar this year.

**Soundtrack List**

Ayumi Hamasaki – M (Maria)

Younha – Houkiboshi

******Caliburn Initiative******

"What were you thinking, boy!?"

In front of a half circle table where a group of men and women dressed in highly official looking uniforms, Naruto Uzumaki stood stoically, facing down the tribunal with unerring calm.

The large beefy man who had spoken earlier pounded a fist onto the table, his large moustache bristling, "You may be Crowbel's favourite but you are STILL a civilian, and yet you forced yourself into an active fight under TSAB's auspices and obstructed operations."

"I took the best actions that I could see in that situation. Under the circumstances, the Arthra's systems were being hacked into and power was being cut off. Reinforcements would have only arrived in 45 minutes at best regardless of whether contact was made with Headquarters. I chose to force Cadet Limietta to teleport me there." The blonde calmly countered, "Cadet Amy Limietta's actions were made under duress and pressure by myself and should not be held responsible."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't those the exact same actions that resulted in one of our Contract Mages, a known criminal if I might add, sent into the hospital despite your _best _line of action? It's obvious you were helping those mages fill the Book of Darkness." All around him the officers made assenting noises, "With regard to everything we've seen so far, give us a reason why we shouldn't have you impounded and transferred to the Research Department for such obvious disregard for rules?"

The blonde suppressed a sigh and pulled out his last card, "Because I'm not part of your TSAB, as you have already made clear; regardless of everything, I'm still a civilian by your laws, even then I'm not even a supplicant to your Justice System so this trial is farce. You have no such control over me, Section 38, subsection 869(c) in case you're interested. At best, you can only fine me or hold me in temporary detention. Attempting to do anything more will be a blatant abuse of power and violation of my rights as a human, Lost Logia or otherwise." He bowed mockingly.

The way he smiled brazenly at them was no better than if he had just given them the middle finger.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Sorry I couldn't be there, brat. Conflict of interest they called it." Crobel sighed as she passed him a cold can of beer, "Though I must admit, after watching the recording, I'm pretty impressed with the way you handled yourself. You evaded every single attempt to trap you like a damned pro. Experience?"

The blonde accepted the beer gratefully and downed half of it with one gulp, "Sort off. That's not exactly the first time I was put on trial for insubordination and reckless behaviour. Still think I'll be a good asset?"

The older lady eyed him in a judging manner, "Careful with that brat. This is a special occasion; don't think you're getting another one till you actually hit 18."

The blonde blinked and began carefully sipping from the can, "So I get one every time I get court marshalled? Damn, where's the closest bank?"

Crowbel laughed raucously, much to her assistant's horror, "Well, you'd definitely be a good **Inspector **if anything."

"I'll pass. I don't wanna be stuck behind a desk crunching numbers and looking through dusty files like you, old lady." He crushed the empty can in his grip, "What's gonna happen to me and Amy now?"

"Well... the girl's gonna be put under probation at half pay for the next two months, but she's lucky to have gotten off easy. Quite a few of those old bags were under the impression that you took a knife to her throat, the rest damn near saluted you and your big brass balls for the way you lied your ass off in front of every almost every single decorated officer of the TSAB without even blinking. You on the other hand..."

"What?"

"Your application to the Academy was accepted."

Naruto's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, "Hah? Wait, why? I thought I was screwed, criminal record and all that."

"Not so fast, brat. Your application may have been accepted, but instead of the normal aptitude testing, they want you admitted through a full gauntlet." Crowbel sighed and downed her own beer, "You're a special case, lots of them think you should be put in jail, but that little showing told those that didn't think you were a murdering madman that you had potential. They're going to hold you to a higher standard."

The blonde laughed without fear, "I do look the type don't I?"

"It's the whiskers." Crowbel grinned, "It makes you look wild. Girls like that."

"Damn right." The blonde got up and tossed the crushed can straight into a waste container 30 metres away with easy, "I'll be seeing you, baba. Time for school."

"Not so fast brat, I got some papers for you to sign."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Ayumi Hamasaki – M (Maria)**

"Naruto!"

The blonde turned around with a bored look on his face, "What is it, Pigtails?"

Nanoha Takamachi came to a stop behind him, panting slightly from the effort of trying to catch up with him; mostly because he had escaped from class the moment the bell rung. Knowing his dislike of crowds, Nanoha had tried to head him off by going to the most deserted place in school; the small clearing behind the gym building, "I just wanted to thank you."

The blonde blinked slowly, "I accept. Though I must confess that I have absolutely no idea what you're thanking me for."

"For helping Fate when I couldn't." The auburn haired girl quietly said.

Naruto frowned, partially angry at himself for blundering into a frontal assault like a rookie Genin and getting trapped for his effort, "There's no need to thank me for something like that. Besides, I failed. They still managed to get her Core and she's stuck in the hospital."

"That may be true, but Lindy-san said that because of you that they failed to completely drain her Core. She'll up again in no time. Not to mention we also got valuable information on our opponents thanks to that interruption."

"Ah... how is she anyway?" The blonde boy asked with shifty eyes, still feeling guilty about getting Amy in trouble without anything solid to show for it.

"She's already awake. She's also asking why you haven't gone to see her."

"I'l go... soon."

"Soon when?" Nanoha retorted expectantly.

"Like I said, soon!"

"Hmmm...?" her expectant stare bore into his defences.

"Alright, alright, I'll go after school. Why does she want to see me anyway?"

The girl frowned, "She wants to thank you, what else?"

The blonde sighed, "There's no reason to thank me."

"Mou... Why can't you just accept it?"

"Why would I want to accept thanks for doing something any normal person would have done anyway?" Naruto asked with a genuinely confused look, "If you could, you would've done the exact same thing right?"Nanoha's eyes went as large as dinner plates at the very familiar line that was being said in someone else's voice as the before the grinning blonde poked her forehead to snap her out of her daze. "Fate is a... friend, and I'll always protect my friends. It's my Ninja Way."

The auburn haired girl spluttered and pushed him away from her.

"Now, if there's nothing else can I please return to having my lunch in peace?"

"Oh there's definitely something else." Nanoha grinned widely and grabbed his shoulder with an iron grip, "Fate told me to make sure that you ate lunch with us."

"Can I take a pass?"

"No. Now do I need to drag you there, or will you walk on your own?"

"Drag." Naruto answered instantly in an attempt to embarrass Nanoha into stopping.

It didn't work.

"Great... now there's two of them." He muttered under his breath as he was dragged towards the school rooftop where Arisa and Suzuka were apparently already waiting. Much to the pain of the blonde's very tender ass, the auburn haired girl took the route filled the most bumps and stairs for some strange, incomprehensibly twisted reason.

"Speaking of which, Lindy mentioned that you're going to be officially entered into the TSAB Academy soon?" Nanoha spoke to the blonde through a telepathic connection since they were in public.

"Oh yeah, the old lady said something about that didn't she? I wasn't really paying attention. All I knew was that I had to sign a crap ton of papers, my hand hurt for hours after that." the blonde who was being dragged along like a sack of potatoes murmured back while he stared up at the sky, "I think it was going to be a battle royale styled match with a few other entrants or something. I'm not really sure, but she says that my evaluation reports have come back fine and I'm being given a battery powered Device, mostly for defensive purposes and limited flight."

"You don't sound too enthusiastic about it." She noted. Both of them were quite unaware of the fact that plenty of students were giving them strange looks, partially because no one had expected Nanoha to be strong enough to drag the blonde along on the ground, with seeming ease no less and partially because it was hilarious.

"Mah... I wouldn't say that I'm not happy about it. If I get accepted..." The blonde stared at Nanoha's back for a silent moment before hesitantly continuing, "If I get accepted, I'll be shoved into a chain of command that I have no interest in obeying and be given responsibilities that I don't want. On the other hand, if I can graduate and get accepted as an **Enforcer, **it'llallow me to choose my own missions as well as give me access to the resources I need to find my home again." He nudged Nanoha with the back of his head and given his current position, his head nudged somewhere inappropriate, not that he knew or cared, causing the girl to yelp cutely, "You gonna be one?"

Stop that! It tickles," She grumbled mentally, "At any rate, I'm not sure yet, it's still a little early for a normal girl like me I guess, but I hope you find your home. Though Fate will be sad if you leave." She said a little teasingly.

The boy at her feet wondered why she sounded strange all of a sudden. Brushing it off as the cold weather, he chuckled lightly, "Who said anything about quitting just like that afterwards? Someone as awesome as me can be an **Enforcer** and a Hokage at the same time! Nyahaha!"

"What's a Hokage?"

"Sort of like one of TSAB's Commanders I guess, only larger."

"Uwah, I pity whoever is under your command."

"At least I won't have loose cannons like you under my command."

"I don't even know where to start expressing how ironic I think that statement is."

The two of them chuckled, as they travelled, or rather, Nanoha walked and Naruto was dragged, in a mostly companionable silence until they reached the roof top.

Sitting down beside Nanoha with another long sigh, he opened his lunch box. Sunshine yellow eyebrows slowly rose again and he pursed his lips, "You know... I always knew that Chrono didn't like me, but this sort of proves it."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Nanoha asked the blonde who was staring at the contents of his lunch box with a distasteful look.

He pulled out a hunk of dry bread and a full unwashed cucumber. In the empty box was a note; _'Make your own damn lunch.'_

"... I'm so hurt." The blonde commented dryly.

"You don't look like it." Nanoha pointed out.

"I am. Deep down inside I'm crying tears of blood." He replied with a perfectly straight face.

"Can you blame him?" the auburn haired girl countered dryly, "You keep teasing him and calling him weird names."

He shook his head in disgust, "It's not my fault he's so uptight and walks around like he has a telephone pole shoved up where the sun doesn't shine." He giggled disturbingly, "I don't know why, but I have this unstoppable urge to mess with anybody that acts like that. To me it's like he pasted a sign board saying; _'Please screw with me,'_ on his forehead."

"Maybe if you took things a little seriously, he might not be so harsh with you." Nanoha added snidely.

The soft spoken Suzuka and Arisa could only share a look and watch nervously as the genuinely kind hearted and upright Nanoha began arguing with the flamboyantly irresponsible Naruto.

Again.

The other students in class had actually begun to take bets on each quarrel, especially since the blonde seemed to be able to get under sweet tempered Nanoha's skin like nobody else.

Then again, he pretty much tried his best to annoy anybody that was unfortunate enough to be in hearing range anyway. Or at least, anybody he could stand. The moment the _Naruto fan club _showed up, one could see him literally sprinting for the closest exit fast enough to break the Guinness World Record with astonishing regularity.

"Maybe if you were a little more elegant and lady like... Oh wait. Not happening." He dryly shot back while blue eyes shifted lower until they were somewhere in the vicinity of her chest, "Not anytime **soon** anyway." He got up with a resigned sigh, "I'm going to buy something from the lunch shop. There's no way something like this will be filling. You want me to get you anything?"

"Ah, pudding! You know which kind I like right?"

"Yeah. The kind with the weird jelly in them right? Oh yeah... **definitely **not any time soon." He grumbled lowly before glancing at the two other girls and shrugged carelessly, mighty as well be polite, "You two want anything?"

"Ah... No thanks. We already have enough."

Naruto waved over his shoulder with one hand in his pocket, "Osu!"

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Younha – Houkiboshi**

"Oh? Aren't you Nanoha's friend?"

Naruto who had been sitting on the bank of a river, throwing stones into the water in a bad mood looked up to see a brown haired man that looked fairly familiar. He racked his mind for the man's name, "Oh... Kyouya-san. It's good to see you." He greeted politely, even if he didn't feel like it.

The older man kicked the bicycle stand and left it standing by the road side as he approached the boy with a casual smile, "What's up? You look down."

Naruto snorted, "It's nothing."

"You know, whenever people say that, it usually means something." The taller boy pointed out with an easy smile, hand in pocket, "Is this about Fate-chan getting hurt in that fight?"

The short blonde blinked, "You know about them?"

"Of course we do, we're Nanoha's family after all." He squatted down beside the boy and picked up a rock of his own to throw, "It doesn't stop does it? This pathetic feeling; worrying about them when they're out there fighting, knowing that you can't help even if you want to because all that would do is hurt her."

Naruto grunted noncommittally, he wasn't really feeling helpless. It was more that he felt... disappointed. Logically, he understood that he had tried his best and that was enough. Logically he understood that hard work didn't always solve everything, he knew that better than anyone; it was the reason he had been adrift in dimensional space after all.

But that still didn't change the fact that he was disappointed in himself.

Seeing the blonde wasn't going to answer, Kyouya grinned, "Want to spar?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if you wanted to spar. I find that whenever I'm having problems, having a fight helps me clear my mind and find another solution." He grinned good naturedly, "I think it's because of all the adrenaline, Nanoha thinks it's because I get my head hit too hard."

Naruto shrugged, "Anything that girl thinks is stupid is good enough for me." He got up and dusted of the seat of his pants, "Here?"

"Why not?" the brown haired man drew out a wooden bokutou, causing Naruto to give him a disbelieving look, "You seriously carry that thing around with you all the time?"

"I was born in from a samurai clan you know. You ready? No magic alright?"

The blonde let out a carefree laugh before suddenly darting forwards without warning.

Kyouya smirked and thrust his bokutou forwards with a sharp slice; Naruto ducked under the wooden blade before the taller man shifted his stance and followed the thrust with a strike with the handle. Naruto was forced to continue his downwards momentum, landing in a handstand the blonde shot off a helicopter kick which Kyouya avoided by leaning backwards and spinning around, bringing the bokutou full circle into a swift side cut that barely skimmed the blonde's white shorts, "Not bad. You seem to lack a defined style, no stance at all. To most, that would be a disadvantage, loosing even a tenth of a second can determine a win or loss, but your reflexes and instincts compensate for that, resulting in a very unpredictable offense."

"I was never one for all that discipline, best stance for attacking and defending or whatever," Righting himself, Naruto ducked and weaved his way through the next sequence of short but vicious thrusts, catching the last thrust by the man's wrist and using the extended arm like a monkey bar to vault upwards and returned the favour by hammering his heels into the man's nose.

Or tried to anyway.

Nanoha's brother leaned back and suddenly pulled out a shorter bokutou that was half the length of his main weapon, jabbing it into Naruto's abdomen in mid air. Yelping, the blonde twisted his body like a cat in mid air; he was a little too late and the point of the wooden sword successfully scratched a thin furrow along his stomach, but the off balance boy managed to turn the momentum, scoring his own blow by unpredictably turning his failed snap kick into a full roundhouse kick that brushed the very tip of the brown haired man's nose.

Kyouya scrunched up his nose and tried to look at it with crossed eyes as he settled himself into a two sword style stance, "It feels a little numb. That's one blow each, wanna cut this short? Miyuki's gonna freak out if I'm late again."

He quirked an eyebrow in reply, "Your offer?"

"We finish this with one last blow, use everything we have." The taller man excitedly replied like a child.

"My everything will more than likely put you in an early grave." Naruto dryly pointed out, "And then Nanoha will blow my ass straight to kingdom come just to keep you company there."

"Ahahah..." Kyouya laughed sheepishly, "Then just try to take my best move, I've always wanted to see how I would fare against a mage."

"Technically I'm not a mage."

The brown haired man settled into a strange stance, "Then what are you?" He burst into action with a hard and intense expression without waiting for Naruto's reply.

"_Yuwa-ryu: Heaven on Earth."_

******Caliburn Initiative******

Later that evening at Midori-ya, Nanoha's elder sister answered the ringing doorbell and gasped at what she found standing outside, "Kyouya, what happened to you?!"

The brown haired man who was soaked to the bone simply grinned and showed her what remained of his two wooden swords. Both of them had been completely shattered beyond repair.

The Godly Twin Short Sword Master who was still grinning in an utterly unrepentant manner despite his bedraggled appearance chuckled, "You weren't wrong about the boy."

******Caliburn Initiative******

The door opened with a creek, causing both the blonde girl lying on bed reading a novel and her friend who sat beside her, peeling apples to look up.

She smiled softly.

"You're late."

******Caliburn Initiative******


	4. Fourth Step: Meet Caliburn

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 4**

**Fourth Step: Meet Caliburn  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Happy 2013!**

Righto, everyone remember my Christmas present to readers last year? This year, I decided to do something similar. We're updating this, along with True Faith, Caliburn Initiative and The Hunter the moment the clock hits twelve in Australia, which means the guys in America got lucky. That's right, Four chapters in ONE month. Bow before my awesomeness. Bwahaha.

**Soundtrack List**

May'n – Lion

Mark Petrie – Prophecy Fulfilled

******Caliburn Initiative******

Blue eyes snapped open, and Naruto threw himself out of the bed keeping his back to the wall as he stared around d the empty room wildly. He slapped his left hand to his forehead and wiped away the cold sweat as he tried to calm his heavy breathing, "Just a nightmare... just another nightmare." He mumbled to himself as he gripped his right hand. It was trembling uncontrollably, "Well... there goes my afternoon nap."

Shaking himself, the blonde crossed his fingers into a plus sign, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Exact copies of himself began appearing all over the room, every single one of them looked like death warmed over. He gave a dry half smile, at least he didn't need a mirror, "Everyone start reading."

"What should we read?"

"Just... just read anything that might seem important. I need to keep my mind busy." The blonde sighed as he took a seat on the window sill and began picked up the small wicker basket that contained two needles and a ball of yarn, desperately feeling the need to keep himself busy.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Naruto?" Lindy knocked on the door to the blonde's room carefully before turning the door knob and peeped in, "Are you awake?"

It wasn't the most bizarre thing she had ever seen or heard, but it certainly came close. Very close.

All around the room, sitting on every inch of free space and bickering heatedly with each other, was an entire army of identical blondes, each of them holding a book of some sort. The only one that stood out was the one knitting on the window sill and watching over proceedings with a hawk like gaze.

"No, no, I'm actually serious, they actually let this guy go around enslaving innocent little creatures by throwing stuff at it, then they torture these little creatures with some sort of tools or by forcing them to fight other little innocent creatures until they turn into massive, bloodthirsty loyal pets that will never disobey his orders."

"This world is pretty screwed up huh?"

"Oh c'mon, that's not the worst, I mean, this poor guy got his balls kicked in just because he wanted to be nice... why are they making such a big deal about him being a stalker? What's wrong with liking plants and wanting to introduce it to others?" one blonde on the other side of the room complained with a bored look.

"More like, why in the world are you reading a women's magazine?" Another blonde retorted from the other side of the room.

"Smartass over there was wondering why 9 year old girls wouldn't leave him alone." A blonde who happened to be _walking on the goddamn ceiling _piped up, "Hey, that's right. They don't like plants right? Maybe we should grow a plant or something and kiss it."

"Just be glad you don't have to read this one," Yet another identical blonde boy said dryly as he threw a contemptuous look at his creator, "If I see the words 'true love' and 'handsome vampire' or any variation thereof appearing in the same sentence one more time I am going to commit suicide." The Naruto but not Naruto paused and reconsidered, "Better yet, I'll make someone else commit suicide for me. You guys know where we can find some vampires?"

"Weren't they somewhere called Italy? Where'd you even get that toilet paper anyway?"

"I found Lindy reading it. It looked interesting since she obviously liked it so I borrowed it... without her knowing."

"Can we stop reading and blow something up instead? I mean seriously. We've never read so much before, there was a fucking WAR around us and we didn't read, so why are we reading now?"

Offhandedly, Lindy closed her eyes and proceeded to pinch the bridge of her nose in some disbelief as the discussion devolved into an all out brawl, noting the fact that the personalities on display ran the gamut from childish, calm and stoic to psychopathic pyromaniac. Clone magic wasn't exactly rare per se, but usually when clones were created, their personalities were an exact copy of their creators.

It made her wonder if there wasn't something that the psychotherapists had missed in their evaluation of the blonde.

When she opened them again, the only one that remained was the one on the windowsill and the room had miraculously returned to its previously Spartan condition. The blonde boy sent her a lazy wave with sleepy half closed eyes, "Is something wrong, Lindy-san?"

Lindy narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

The boy's expression was artfully composed into a mask of absolute innocence.

Despite Naruto Uzumaki's interaction with the rest of the Harlaowns', he had a tendency of being passively offensive towards authority figures, and the Admiral was quite aware that he was significantly softer in his interactions with her in comparison with how he treated all the other officers. At least they were making progress, she supposed, which was probably why Crowbel had stuck him with them. Getting tricked was certainly a far better alternative than getting liberally dosed with knockout solution and then super glued to the ceiling of Headquarter's main hall, like a certain official that annoyed the blonde. No one could prove it was him of course, especially since doing so meant they would have to admit that a ten year old had managed to sneak his way through layers of heavy magical security, but the vicious smile that he wore as everyone watched the officer painfully strip in front of everyone to free himself, just to then fall into a tub full of itching powder that was waiting for him said a whole lot.

"I… never mind. I guess I haven't been getting enough rest."

"Of course," The ten year old answered amiably before he winked at her with a decidedly mischievous smile, "Was there a reason you were looking for me?"

"Yeah. Commander Crowbel sent us a message; apparently your new Device was completed yesterday."

The blonde boy cocked his head in interest, "Does it come in orange?"

Lindy gave him a strange look and an amused smile, "A custom made prototype that might revolutionize the way TSAB functions was finally finished, and the first thing you do is ask if it comes in orange?"

The blonde boy shrugged, "If I'm going to kick ass, I want to look good doing it. Incidentally, when can I try it out? Flat Chest's brakeless ski board aside, flying was actually pretty fun when I didn't have to use my face as a landing pad."

The green haired woman smiled faintly, "Debatable, but I'll ask if they can accommodate your request. As for trying it out, it's still a blank slate; the Research Department wants to run a few more tests and fine tune its specs to make sure its fit for duty. According to the Head Researcher, when they're done with it, its shields and batteries will be powerful enough for you to dive out of the nearest satellite and hit ground in one piece. Once they are satisfied, it'll be sent to the Arthra for final adjustments."

Naruto shrugged again in a careless manner, "I've survived without it thus far. A few days won't hurt," He looked at her expectantly, "Was there anything else you needed me for?"

Lindy braced herself, "Yes, with all its maintenance completed, we're moving our base of operations back to the Arthra."

He continued knitting without missing even a beat, "Will we be abandoning this house then? Pity, I was getting rather… fond of this room."

The green haired lady paused and reconsidered her answer; originally, the plan had been to leave the house, citing an unavoidable family emergency to all their neighbours, but now that the blonde finally seemed to show a sense of belonging and stability, even if just a little, and she was loathe to take it away from him.

Lind Harlaown smiled warmly, "It wouldn't hurt to have a secondary base already established, I'm sure we can arrange something."

The blonde nodded slowly, it was faint, but she could see the gratefulness in his posture; a slight relaxing of the shoulders and jaw muscles, "Do you need any help moving everything?"

"No, we'll be fine. Why don't you take the time to rest a little more?" Lindy paused and stared at him with some embarrassment, "Oh and I expect you to put that book back where you found it when you're done." She said firmly despite the heat suffusing her cheeks.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Perhaps going to Nanoha's house had been a bad idea, Naruto silently admitted to himself as he deftly caught a set of kendo armour along with a wooden blade that Kyouya had thrown at him. The moment he had arrived, he had been given an extremely warm welcome, along with supposedly free cake and tea, only to find out that there really was no such thing as a free lunch.

All the other commissioned officers had already returned to the trans-dimensional warship to get operations back online, leaving the only one, i.e Naruto, who couldn't help their efforts in any way, to stay at home alone until things were done. Chrono had been exceedingly smug when he pointed out that Naruto was as blind as a bat when it came to technology and might as well stay at home rather than bother those that were actually doing work.

Which was why a certain beloved blonde who was lacking any sort of currency and nearly delirious with boredom inevitably wandered himself to the nearest source of entertainment; namely Nanoha. Unfortunately, the aforementioned mage wasn't home and the poor blonde had been forcibly conscripted by her older brother for a practice match with another dojo.

It said something about his luck when he, Kyouya and Miyuki finally arrived at the dojo, and the first person to step forward was a very familiar rose haired woman. Kyouya had gone and shook her hand warmly with a firm grasp, "It's good to finally meet you Instructor Yagami, I've been hearing a lot about you even though you just moved here recently."

Her violet eyes slowly shifted from the blonde who was steadily banging his head on the wall in a corner of the dojo back to the brown haired man, "My thanks for allowing us to have a practice match before the competition, it will be good practice for my students."

As the opposing members started getting ready, she placed her bag down by the blonde who was still pounding his head into the wall at regular intervals.

"I didn't know that you practiced kendo." She noted in an aloof manner before sighing, "I should have listened to Shamal about having a practice match with someone who was coincidentally named Takamachi, I thought she was just worrying needlessly again."

Naruto removed his face from the wall before slowly face palming, "I don't." and jerked his blade in the direction of a bouncing Kyouya who was talking with one of the older practitioners from Signum's dojo, "He wanted to have a match with you so badly that he forced me to help in return for cake. I'm just here to bloat up the numbers." One blue eye observed her from between the gaps of his fingers, "I could say the same for you though. I didn't expect you to be working such a… mundane job."

The unspoken, 'I expected you to be out there hunting cores.' Rang out loud and clear.

"It helps to pay the bills," Signum commented blandly as she started putting on her own gear, "Besides, if we don't keep doing this once in a while, Master might get a little suspicious." Hefting a wooden sword up, she called out to Kyouya, "Takamachi-san, I'm ready." and left the blonde to wonder about her words. From the way she spoke, it seemed to imply that the Master of the Book of Darkness had no idea they were hunting cores.

Naruto sat himself down to watch a good match with narrowed eyes; it was a three on three match with him going last against the youngest member from Signum's dojo. Then again, given his presence, he wasn't entirely surprised to note that the rose haired woman only used the most basic moves in the match… and still managed to overpower Kyouya.

"Yo, good match." Naruto smirked as he joined Kyouya and Miyuki, handing both them a towel and a bottle of water.

The sweating brown haired man grinned widely, albeit a little painfully from the bruises he had accumulated, "Wasn't it? Too bad we both lost though, at least Miyuki won her match eh? Looks like the two of us have a long way to go before we can catch up to her." He ribbed his sister with a good natured grin. Surprisingly enough, the ten year old boy got along with the two of them very well for some reason.

"Mou… the two of you are plenty good. I just got lucky with the draw," She sighed wistfully, "Still, I wish that I got to have a match with Instructor Yagami, the way she fought was so elegant and graceful."

"You do that." Naruto sighed and leaned back onto the wall, covering his eyes lazily, "I'm happy to stay exactly where I am." He had been very relieved to finally get out of the hot and restrictive traditional kendo armour and he would be the first to admit that the way he had fought with the bokutou had been no better than if the piece of wood in his hands was nothing but a clumsy club, resulting in a very fast and embarrassing loss.

Put simply, he could not see himself using an awkward blade anytime soon.

Kyouya slapped his knees and got up with a little trouble, "Yosh, I'm going to train harder."

His sisters sighed in exasperation and slapped him up the head, "Train later. It's already late and time to dinner." Turning to the lightly snoozing blonde, she smiled sweetly, "Naruto-chan, why don't you stay for dinner?"

One blue eye peeped at her before the blonde leapt up and ran a hand through his damp hair, pushing them out of his eyes, "I better not, Lin…Kaa-san doesn't know that I'm out and I don't want to make her worried. I'll just take a quick bath in the showers before I head back." The blonde waved as the two Takamachi's left the dojo in a hurry to cook dinner and was about to enter the showers when someone threw something at him from behind.

**Play May'n – Lion**

Stepping aside, the blonde easily caught the projectile. He glanced at the bokutou and sighed.

"We didn't get to have a match." His attacker commented, her intentions all too clear.

Naruto half grinned, "I was under the impression that you didn't want to show me your moves."

"I could say the same to you."

"In my case, it's more of an 'I don't HAVE any moves to show' thing." The blonde pointed out as he got into an awkward two handed stance.

Signum looked his stance over critically before whacking his extended knee with her bokutou, "Your centre of gravity is too low. It works for a brawler, but when you're using a sword it's just too inefficient." She whacked his shoulder and forearms, "You're gripping it wrong as well. It's no wonder you were flailing it around like an idiot earlier."

The blonde rolled his eyes before adjusting his stance and gave her a dry look, "You ARE aware that I'm quite happy to stick with using my fists aren't you?"

"I am," She admitted, ignoring his sarcastic tone as she began poking him with her stick, testing his defences, "But there's nothing more dangerous to a person than remaining purposefully ignorant."

Naruto weaved through her thrusts, trusting his body more than the block of wood, "I assure you, you're not the first to say that to me. Fortunately, it works out to my advantage." In that instant, his eyes hardened, and the boy darted in with a thrust, allowing the woman to catch his bokutou and fling it out of his hands. Undeterred, Naruto spun forward, barely evading her blade and snatched his own sword out of the air with his other hand, the momentum of his spin resulting in a full horizontal swipe that should have cut her back in half when he came full circle.

Signum leapt forward, barely feeling the swish of the blade graze the back of her uniform. Spinning around, she grinned at him, "Hoh…. Tricky little child."

Naruto smiled half-heartedly in response and bowed mockingly, "People have this unfortunate tendency to underestimate you when they think you're an idiot that's dressed in bright orange." The two of them began exchanging a rapid flurry of strikes that blurred the air between the two fighters. "Unfortunate for them that is." Naruto commented dryly, "Especially when they suddenly have this rather pressing need to find him and disembowel him but can't see or find even a shred of orange or a loudmouthed blonde anywhere they look..." The blonde dissolved into mist mid strike, causing Signum to instinctively whirl around and block an overhead strike, "It takes skill to notice a ninja that is trying to hide his presence," However, instead of being stopped, the intangible wooden blade simply phased through and another blade hit her side viciously, "But it takes even more skill to pretend not to notice and turn it on him!"

The two of them leapt back from each other, breathing heavily. Naruto could only smile a little painfully as he rubbed his side where a black and blue bruise was already forming from where Signum had hit him mid counter, "Alright, I give. You're good."

Signum half smirked, half winced as she rubbed her own side, feeling a little surprise at the amount of satisfaction that she had gained from competing with a ten year old boy in a straight up match of skill and wits, "That's a given isn't it? I've lived longer than you've eaten rice boy."

"Meh, rice is overrated." the two of them chuckled lightly at the reply.

"How is Testarossa-san by the way?"

"She's recovered properly. Even if her Core wasn't hurt much, someone sticking a hand through her chest probably did." The blonde replied shortly as he parried a strike and followed it up with an upper cut. His stance was half assed and his movements were crude and inefficient, especially once he got used to the flow of battle, but Signum noted that those disadvantages simply became an advantage to him when he applied his great flexibility, reflexes and instincts that enabled him to strike from strange angles, even while backpedalling.

Signum nodded noncommittally but she couldn't help but feel relieved, "Glad to hear it. Have you caught the man that attacked her and Nanoha-san?"

The blonde looked vaguely surprised and back flipped away from her, looking wary when he landed, "You know about the one that attacked Pigtails?"

She gave him a dry look and resettled her stance, "Vita told us about it."

"Ah..." The blonde scratched his whiskered cheek and reversed his blade into a reverse grip like how he would have used a tanto, "Not yet… but my attack definitely left a distinctive mark on the man," Naruto replied, referring to the whorl mark that would have been left by his dual Rasengan, "Based on that, sentinels have been posted at all registered healers, but they seem to be staying low." The blonde's eyes hardened once more and all of Signum's long honed instincts told her to move when the blonde disappeared and the sound of wood whistling through the air reached her ears.

"It was an interesting attack, it the same one that broke through Laevantein's defence wasn't it?" She leapt over the extremely swift wide slash and continued evenly as she whipped her blade at the back of his unprotected head which was avoided when the boy rolled away, "Later that night, when I asked him how that was possible, he gave me a rather surprising answer; when your technique hit our _Feuer Orkan_, Laevantein counted 198 hits in one second, all focused on one spot." The woman paused, feeling slightly surprised as she realized that they were speaking to each other in an almost polite and conversational manner, "He was understandably displeased; in fact, despite his limited ability for emotions, I get the impression that he wants to fight with you again. I actually feel rather bad that I'm doing this without him."

Naruto smiled briefly; maybe they would even get to try out some of his stronger Rasengan variants, "The one I used on Laevantein was actually one level higher than the ones I used on the masked man but I'm glad to hear that. Then again, I was surprised it did as much damage as it did. I was aiming for capture him rather than hurt."

"On any other person, it would have probably worked, but the spell array that appeared shortly after you beat him was a delayed teleportation spell designed to activate if the target was knocked unconscious. It was what I would have done in a sensitive operation." Signum noted with a grudging respect at the blonde's ability to adapt and improve even if he was handicapped with a sword he was unused to as they clashed blades again, "Word of advice though, from the way you speak, I can only assume that you've gone up against field and barrier type spells; but shields are far harder to break. Something of that level wouldn't have even dented a proper shield."

"Good to know." He narrowed his eyes and grunted as the woman's greater strength began pushing her back, "I'm surprised that you're actually giving me advice rather than attacking me to stop me from reporting you to my superiors."

His poor bokutou began cracking under the stress.

The rose haired woman shrugged carelessly and calmly continued in her smooth and deep tone as the blonde let himself be pushed back and landed in a handstand, one foot shot up at her chin.

Signum leaned back and began hacking away at the upside down boy, "If you were going to, you would have done it after that day and came after us mob handed while Vita and Zafira was hurt. That and the fact that you came alone instead of in a squad and unarmed told me that you weren't associated with them, or at least not willingly."

"Point to you." Naruto conceded with a nod as he back flipped away from Signum, "That being said, I'm not really part of the strategic sessions since I'm nominally a civilian, not to mention I don't really understand a lot of what they're saying, but it sounded to me like filling the Book is a bad thing. You do realize that even if you succeed, you're going to fail aren't you?"

The two of them locked blades again with guttural growls as the conversation headed deeper and deeper into uncomfortable territory, "We will gladly bear her resentment if it means that she will live past this Christmas."

"Even if it means that she gets hunted by the TSAB for the rest of her life for something she had nothing to do with? Will you subject her to something like that?" Naruto inquired with cold eyes as he felt his back come into contact with the hard wood of a wall.

Signum took a deep breath and pushed the blonde away from her, giving her enough space to start landing heavy blow after heavy blow on the boy's flimsy defence. It was true that the way he fought was unorthodox and very unpredictable, a style like that could never hold up under pressure once cornered, as shown by his increasingly desperate attempts to parry her attacks as best as he could, "We, the Wolkenritters, existed as nothing but magical constructs, programs in the Book as part of its Defence structure until recently. My memory of the past is spotty at best, but I do remember that, for as long as we have existed, every single one of our former Masters have always treated us as tools in their greed and lust for the Book of Darkness' immense power; our actions have caused so much bloodshed and sadness to all parties involved that we have resigned ourselves to it. In a way, it was easier for our psyche to simply think ourselves as weapons. She was the first one of our Masters to treat us as independent beings, with kindness and respect." The mature woman's blue eyes stared at him penetratingly, "She has no wish to abuse the Book's power, and ultimately, we bear no grudge against you or your superiors but even if I have to fight my way through the entire TSAB, I will make sure that-"

Naruto's bokutou finally shattered under the relentless assault, causing Signum's words to be interrupted when she was jerked out of her rhythm, lurching forward when the blonde caught the blade with one bare hand and pulled, stabbing the end into the wall beside him and stopping her from moving away, her nose was barely an inch away from his, blazing sky blue peered into cold baby blue.

He grinned, "You will make sure that she lives because she is precious to you." The blonde leaned away with a half smile, "That simple acknowledgement that she gave you is more than enough reason to ensure that you're willing to go to any lengths to help her, even if you know what you're doing is wrong, something that other people don't understand, because to them, acknowledgement is something they receive everyday and take for granted."

Naruto grinned cheekily and the bokutou's edge in his grip suddenly began vibrating violently before shattering explosively without any apparent reason, sending shards of wood all over her dojo, "Sounds like someone I can relate to. Can I meet her? My superiors are certainly interested in her."

"In your dreams." Signum instantly shot back calmly, although she was a little unnerved by how close the ten year old boy in front of her had hit the nail on the head. She glanced at the leftover hilt of the destroyed sword and made another mental reminder about staying away from his hands.

And eyes.

"Siiignum!" a short red haired girl entered the dojo in a whirlwind of energy and ran up to the two of them with a bright smile, "We're done. The doctors say that she's cleared to go home." Following behind her at a more sedate pace was a lady-like blonde woman and a large dog. However, the moment the gentle looking woman caught sight of the dirty and sweating blonde boy, she froze and began to rapidly pale.

Vita, realizing that Signum wasn't alone, narrowed her eyes at the whiskered boy, "Who are you? What are you doing with Signum?" She asked rudely.

Signum smirked again, unable to resist taking another dig at the blonde, "He's just a helpless, lost little _child_ that asked me for help. I'm sure he can find his own way home now that he knows how to defend himself, right?"

Chuckling lightly, Naruto hefted the bag containing his borrowed kendo gear over his shoulder, "Un! Thanks _oba-san_!"

The two of them discretely glared at each other, eyebrows twitching when the blonde suddenly plastered on a completely unassuming grin, making the strangely shrewd ten year old look like a complete simpleton, probably for Vita's benefit.

He spun around and began walking away, hands clasped behind his head in a carefree manner, "I'll pay you back someday for the training, _oba-san_."

Signum quirked her lips in amusement at the strange boy, "What's your name boy?" She just realized that all this time, she still didn't know his name.

"Naruto Uzumaki." He waved over his shoulder, "Tell Laevantein we'll play again soon, properly next time."

Vita frowned worriedly, "Who was that? And why does he know about Laevantein?"

Signum briefly glanced at the smaller girl; they hadn't actually told her about the attack, preferring to give her some peace of mind. By now, Vita herself had already brushed it off as a bad dream. No point stirring up a hornet's nest now though she would have to let Vita know that the boy would inevitably be an enemy further down the road, "An… acquaintance… for now."

She squinted at the darkening horizon, "Shamal?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Please put up the strongest barrier you have around our home, they must not find us before we are finished." The boy had dropped a hint in his words that the TSAB would now focus more on finding their Master rather than face the Wolkenritter head on, not that she had been any better. She had let slip far more information than she was happy with in the heat of battle.

"Understood."

******Caliburn Initiative******

Humming to himself, the blonde slowly strolled home after a rather interesting day. Internally, he was wondering how to properly phrase the situation to the rest without alerting them to the fact that he had talked to Signum when he came across a boy dressed all in black standing outside the Harlaown residence in a very suspicious manner.

He knew only one person who dressed all in black like that. Grinning viciously, the blonde tiptoed up behind the boy before smacking his back with a loud yell.

Chrono yelped and nearly jumped into the air, the package that he had been trying to fit under his bulky shirt clattered onto the ground.

Whirling around, the raven haired boy promptly tried to punch a grinning Naruto who side stepped the attack with a casual, "Yo." Then he noticed the brightly coloured box peeking out of the torn brown wrapping. "Hmmm? What's this?" Naruto bent down and picked up the package curiously.

One eyebrow slowly rose as he read the words emblazoned across its front, "Love-Love Plus?"

"Give me that!" A red faced and strangely high pitched Chrono snatched it out of his hands and slid it into his pocket, "I-It's not mine! I borrowed it from Amy!"

"Alright, alright," A confused blonde held up his hands in surrender to calm the agitated officer before leaning forward inquisitively, "What is it?"

Chrono sniffed as disdainfully as he could, "None of your business."

"Aww… C'mon. It looked interesting." The blonde wheedled, "Is it one of those things called a _game_? I haven't seen one before."

The raven haired boy blinked, "You don't know what that is?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking you." Naruto pointed out easily.

"It's a….. uh…. Instruction manual on Japanese culture and relationships." Chrono replied evasively, "I was interested in it since I… uhm…. don't know much about Japanese culture."

"Really?" Blue eyes almost sparkled excitedly, "Can I borrow it? Just reading books get a little boring."

Chrono glanced at the package uneasily before grinning as an idea occurred to him. The raven haired boy smiled slyly, "I have a few others for beginners that I can loan to you. Just don't tell Amy about it. I don't think that she'd be happy if I did. Deal?"

The two widely smiling idiots shook hands.

"Oh yeah, before that, are you free?"

"Why?"

Naruto tilted his head and wrinkled his nose, "Someone told me about shields and fields or something, but I didn't really get it."

Chrono gave the package one last mournful look before nodding, "Sure, meet me in Arthra's simulation room. I just need to hid- uh… put this in my room first."

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Where's Uke?" the blonde asked as he dropped into a chair for dinner after a nice relaxing bath.

Amy stepped into the room carrying a platter filled with steaming dishes with Fate trailing behind her, giving her a helping hand with the rest of the dishes, "Chrono-kun won't be joining us for dinner tonight. He left to meet with his mentors along with Yuuno a few minutes ago, something about the Book of Darkness. Was there something you needed him for?"

Naruto smirked, "Nothing important I guess. Someone told me about different kinds of defensive spells. I wasn't sure what she meant so I figured Sir Uptight would definitely be able to tell me," The blonde scratched the back of his head in some frustration, "When I asked him, rather than show me, the idiot actually began to recite what sounded like a perfect definitions from the text book and the various theories about it." He made a tsk sound, "I nearly died out of boredom."

Plates clattered on the table with surprising strength as the brown haired woman glared at him, "Why are you so hard on him for something like that even after he helped you?"

The blonde shrugged lazily, "I just think that he would do a lot better if he relaxed a little. I mean, some things are easier to learn if you do it, right?"

Her lips thinned severely, her temper finally hitting its boiling point. She could stand a lot of things, but she would accept the blonde belittling her childhood friend, "Lindy and Chrono may be too nice and polite to say anything but I'm not. Not only are you leeching off them but you are also insulting both the memory of Clyde Harlaown and their principles every time you call him that."

When the stone faced blonde failed to reply, Amy only frowned as Fate and Nanoha watched the conversation with increasing apprehension, His father was one of the best officers in the TSAB, Is it so wrong to want to emulate your parents?" She inhaled deeply, "You are free to be as carefree and irresponsible as you like, you have problems fitting in, you're not happy that you have to stay with us. I GET that." Amy emphasized with a poke of her finger, "But the way you're acting towards him is like that of a bully that is jealous of another student in class getting better grades and taking it out on him through violence without knowing how much damage you are really doing."

Slamming her hands down on the table, the older girl breathed deeply again, looking more than a little surprised at herself, "I... I'm sorry, I don't feel hungry anymore."

As Amy stormed out of the room, Naruto rubbed his temples as he, glanced at a squirming Nanoha, "You knew?" It was more of a statement rather than a question.

"I guessed, but it wasn't my place to tell you." She replied timidly.

The blonde smiled and dug into his plate of stew without another word.

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Mark Petrie – Prophecy Fulfilled**

For the second time in the same day, Lindy knocked on the door gently before stepping in with a apologetic smile.

The blonde who was sitting on the bed barely gave her a look from the book that he was reading.

"I heard about what Amy said, Fate-chan was worried about you."

Naruto smirked, "There's nothing to be worried about. Amy wasn't wrong in the least but I have no intention of changing."

"That's certainly relieving." The woman with tea green hair paused before continuing, "Will you walk with me?"

The blonde stared at her momentarily. The book in his hands snapped shut with a clap and the boy shrugged before jumping off the bed.

"First I want to apologize for Amy, she may have had a point but there was no need to put it so harshly. She's just a little too protective of him." Lindy smiled nostalgically as the two of them entered the hall, "It's a little complicated, but I actually do approve of you teasing Chrono. The thing is; there are all kinds of people in the world. Those that are serious, and those that take things as they come are just two of many shades. Everyone has their own perspectives, values and opinions. That's what makes people so interesting... and so worth saving. Chrono is so much like his father that I don't know whether it's a good or bad thi-."

A faint voice echoed along the empty corridor, "Moeee!"

The two of them froze mid step and Lindy smiled stiffly at the door of Chrono's room.

She face palmed and sighed, "Far…. Far too much like his father…."

Naruto blinked and cocked his head in a look of innocent confusion, "What's moe?"

"Uh…. you can ask Chrono tomorrow," Lindy evaded the question with shifty eyes, "At any rate, from a young age, he has been training and working so hard that he hasn't really had time for friends or fun; sometimes I wonder if I should have stopped him from joining the TSAB until he was older. I heard that you were of a similar opinion when it came to Fate-chan and Nanoha-chan?"

The blonde behind her shrugged as the two of them entered the Arthra's main hull, Lindy's heels making a steady clacking in the almost empty ship, "Not exactly. Where I come from; those that chose to can join the Ninja Academy from the age of six. Defending our home was a great honour and age or gender was certainly no restriction. I simply didn't like to see them hurt, its a personal thing."

"True." She looked at him approvingly, "It seems your home world's culture shares a few similarities with that of ours. Because of magic, our people are far hardier, stronger and mature faster than those on Earth, but from an emotional point of view, we are of the same mould so we try to bar those under a certain level of maturity from taking the more depressing and severe missions, circumstances notwithstanding. In that sense, you have done much to help my son interact with people of his age, I've never seen him make that kind of face when his arguing with you. It was very refreshing."

The blonde grinned, "Or at least prepare him to deal with stubborn and idiotic people."

"That too, of course I wouldn't exactly mind if you decided to be a little more polite in your efforts to provoke a reaction from him."

Naruto sighed, "Technically, whenever I called him Uke, it was never an insult; I don't understand why everyone thinks it is."

The raised eyebrow from his guardian caused him to elaborate, "I call him that because he reminds me of an old…. friend. The two of them are so similar it's not funny. Uke is actually an abbreviated form of his name…before he went nuts anyway." Naruto muttered that last part under his breath so that Lindy couldn't hear. To the blonde, Uke was a completely different person from the revenge driven madman he turned out to be later in his life, though he himself had not reached this conclusion until it was too late.

Lindy chuckled at the blonde's words, "Maybe you should talk to Amy and tell her that. The word has a different connotation in our society." The two of them came to a stop in front of a pair of large steel doors, "You go in here, just wait while I prepare a few things." She instructed quietly.

The blonde stood there tapping his foot on the smooth metallic floor for a few minutes when the large doors suddenly separated with a loud hiss and retracted into the walls.

Squinting into the darkness, Naruto carefully stepped into the abyss.

A large spotlight suddenly activated with a loud mechanical clack, shining its yellowish white light down on a single pedestal in the middle of the mostly empty room.

On the pedestal sat a pair of glinting black bracelets with orange highlights running along the black metal bands.

The caring woman's voice gently floated into his mind through a telepathic connection.

'_Naruto-san, meet Caliburn.'_

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Author's Note  
**

**Kishi: Can someone help summarize and clarify exactly how the TSAB and Mid Childa Army seems to work together, and the overall structure? Cause, to me, it looks as if the TSAB is Mid Childa's planetary equivalent of the JSDF and there's some sort of friction between the Land forces and the Space forces. Throw in the Enforcers/Inspectors/Investigators which look like Senior NCO's to me and it get's a little confusing. Kur0, being the flighty idiot she is, can't be bothered with the small details and is being no help whatsoever. **

**Don't send it through the reviews, just PM us.  
**


	5. Fifth Step: Normal Life

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 5**

**Fifth Step: Normal Life  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

First and foremost, I'd like to simultaneously thank and ass rape the person who suggested Game Theory with a broom as well as its creator, who I think goes by the name Immatrael on ff dot net. It cleared up a lot of stuff as well as gave an immense amount of ideas to my dear brother. On the other hand, the sheer amount of details also buggered him sideways into a near coma, leaving **ME **to pick stuff out from the mess of notes he made. Yeah, that was a bad day.

**Soundtrack List **

BONNIE PINK – Ring a Bell

******Caliburn Initiative******

_Blood spilled out of the dark haired man's lips as he weakly smiled, defiant even while pierced to death, "I chose to do this Naruto. Hinata-sama was willing to die for you and I chose to take her place instead, so remember this, you owe us. Your life no longer belongs to you alone, it includes mine, Hinata, everyone who has brought us this far." _

_Naruto shook his head, "N-No, you'll be fin-"_

"_-Ignorance…. was never an attractive trait Naruto," Neji cut him off with a warm smile even though it was getting harder and harder to breath, "Just remember that I __**chose**__ this. I __**chose**__ to fight this Destiny, a small man against the Juubi. This is what we're here for isn't it? So that each and every one of us here can choose how and why we die." _

"_No! Why….. Why did you do this!?"_

_Neji's eyes slowly darkened, "Because…. I was the genius that lost to an idiot."_

******Caliburn Initiative******

A blonde boy jerked out of bed again, drenched with sweat as he wildly looked around the dark room. A tiny blade of weak sunlight filtered its way through a crack in the curtains, telling the blonde that he had woken up a little too early for school.

Naruto bit his lips and pulled off his sweat soaked shirt, throwing it into a corner of the near empty room and laid back onto his bed with a sigh as he clenched his right fist to stop the tremors, so tightly that his nails bit into his skin.

Despite hissing a little at the pain, he couldn't help but smile thinly at the stinging sensation. It was proof that he could still fight. Giving up any further thoughts of sleep, the blonde pulled himself out of the bed and picked up a towel. It was still early, about half past five by his internal estimations, so the bath should still be open and he would be able to soak in the common bathroom for a while yet.

******Caliburn Initiative******

The blonde haired girl yawned cutely before stumbling on a rock with a yelp, only for her forward momentum to be stopped by a firm grip from a grinning Naruto as they walked to school together, "Sleepwalk while you're actually asleep will you?"

It was rather amusing to see the shy and delicate blonde girl act so unsightly.

Fate mustered every bit of conscious energy that she could to send the male counterpart a half hearted glare, "I can't help it if I...," she was interrupted mid sentence by another yawn, "I was tired from training last night." Her eyes burned with some interminable resolve, "I can't let continue to lose to Signum-san."

The blonde snorted, "Yeah right. Only Pigtails would fall for something like that."

From his observations, unlike Lindy whose strange fascination for Japanese culture ensured that she wasn't going to start her day until half past six, just in time to take a soak in her own bathroom before greeting the morning sun with a mug of warmed and liberally sugared green tea before waking everyone else, Fate was a blanket bug that slept like a rock and wouldn't wake until absolutely necessary.

She dug a finger into his side with a grumpy pout, "What about you? You woke up so early even though you came home looking like you went ten rounds with a Mydian sandworm."

Naruto grinned casually as he made a mental note to let Signum know about that particular comment before gently removing the finger digging into his flesh, "Let's call it old instincts and leave it at that."

The girl hummed thoughtfully at the boy walking beside her, his smooth gait was honed and predatory like that of an experienced fighter, "Just don't overdo it; Nanoha alone is bad enough."

The blonde boy shrugged coolly, "If there's one thing I can respect her for, it's her dedication."

"And yet, the two of you can't seem to get along at all." His friend responded with a knowing smile.

"Fate! Naruto!" a familiar voice called out to the two of them from behind, interrupting their idle conversation.

Fate's sleepy expression was instantly replaced by a shy smile as she waved at a huffing Nanoha whereas the blonde boy simply shrugged as a half hearted greeting. The whirlwind of energy ran up to them before grabbing their shoulders straps, "C'mon, stop dawdling around, we're going to be lateeee!"

"I blame Fate." The blonde slyly countered as he was pulled along by the more energetic Nanoha, prompting a flushed Fate to plant an elbow into his guts.

As the threesome stormed into the classroom with more than enough time to spare, the tanned blonde with scars on his cheeks lazily slouched over to his seat while Fate took hers with far more composure. Arisa glanced at the way the male blonde simply chucked his textbooks on the table before instantly using them as an improvised pillow while Fate arranged hers in a neat pile in preparation for the lesson.

"Sometimes, you two really don't seem like twins to me." She sweat dropped, "Even your names are so different from each other."

Fate and Nanoha shared a hesitant glance as their minds raced to think of an excuse, "Eh... uh..."

"Even twins are allowed their share of differences, I certainly don't want to stay as a mirror image to Fate for the rest of my life," as the two girls were wondering how to answer, a sleepy mutter drifted from the head of spiky blonde hair, "Besides, our names aren't _that _different." He pointed out.

An interested Arisa leaned forward, "What do you mean?"

Blue sleepy eyes peeked out at her from under the shock of yellow hair. For some reason just being in a structured classroom made him feel sleepy, "Our other brother is named Chrono, Fate is well... Fate and Naruto translates to Maelstrom." The spiky haired blonde replied easily, "Time, Fate and Weather are basically three things that humanity deems unstoppable isn't it?" the confident way in which he explained it made it seem like there could be no other reason.

"Good point... Oh by the way," Arisa imperially pointed at Fate and Nanoha, "Don't forget that we're visiting Suzuki's friend this evening." As a satisfied Arisa went back to her seat, Fate stared unblinkingly at the other blonde for a few moments.

For some reason, his ability to lie so convincingly and without any hesitation whatsoever surprised her although it probably shouldn't have, "Sometimes, you act so childishly that I forget that you're really older than us, but then sometimes, you act like you couldn't be anything else."

Naruto quirked one eyebrow, "Was that a compliment?"

"It was an observation." His more refined companion noted with a small smirk as she faced forward at where their homeroom teacher had begun to scribble on the blackboard, "Since when did you know about the meaning our names anyway?"

The blonde boy smiled as he fell flat on his face again and replied in a muffled tone, "I don't _always _sleep in class you know."

Fate snorted derisively at that before she seemed to think of something much to Naruto's wariness, "Oh right, do you want to come with us to meet Suzuki-san's new friend later today? It's after your exam with Nanoha."

"I'll pass, I have better things to do than go to a gathering of twittering nine year old girls."

"Like?"

"Watching paint dry." Naruto deadpanned.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Chrono yawned a little as he pointed down the hall to where a crowd was bustling, "The exam room is down that way. You two will be fine won't you?"

"Hai!" Nanoha cheerfully replied, "What will you be doing in the mean time?"

The raven haired boy scratched his chin as his thoughts mournfully drifted back to his unfinished game back on the Arthra, "I have to meet up with Yuuno back with in the Infinite Library again but I'll come by and pick the two of you up when the exam is over alright?"

The blonde boy who was leaning on the wall simply grunted in the affirmative as he began walking towards the waiting room, leaving the auburn haired girl to bow politely one last time before dashing to catch up with her classmate.

As the two of them stood outside the door, Naruto grabbed Nanoha by the arm to stop her from continuously bouncing on the balls of her feet and lead her to a seat, "Will you_ please_ _calm_ _down_?!"

The auburn haired girl stopped fidgeting in her seat long enough to give the male blonde beside her an incredulous stare, "Calm down? More like, why aren't you excited?!"

"Because it's embarrassing." Naruto stated flatly as he looked around the room full of aspiring examinees staring at Nanoha with a slight frown at their expressions.

She chewed her lip and finally sighed before hunkering down in the flimsy chair provided for the waiting candidates, though Naruto noticed that she had her fist clenched tightly to contain her nervous energy, "I can't help it alright. You heard Admiral Graham didn't you? The number of TSAB certified mages that came from Earth can be counted on one hand. Don't you feel excited at all about being one of those few? It's like being a pioneer or something."

"Not enough to embarrass myself. Besides I'm not technically from Earth anyway." Naruto responded distantly, though he felt a slight stab of guilt at seeing Nanoha deflate at his sharp words. Sighing internally, the blonde spoke grudgingly, "Though to be honest, I wasn't that much better when I attended an exam just like this one. I was jumping all over the place and getting into other people's faces."

"Really?" Nanoha quietly queried, "What exam was that?"

"Eh…." The blonde scratched his head furiously as he tried to put it in Earth terms, "Uhm…. It was a test to see if we qualified for a promotion from foot soldiers to team captain. There were a lot of examinees from other countries and I wasn't on my best behaviour to put it lightly. My employer chewed me out on that a lot. Since there were a lot of influential persons watching and evaluating the exams, and our livelihood depended on the grace of those same people, having a brash and energetic fool that didn't know his left from his right as our representative was definitely not a good thing." The blonde boy sighed nostalgically, "How did she put it again…. '_No matter how much you ask me, I will NOT promote you to Chuunin_. _It doesn't matter if you reached the semi-finals on account of sheer guts alone, do you really want everyone to think of us as a village full of savage idiots with neither skill nor brains?'_ or something like that."

Nanoha giggled helplessly, "She really sounds like Chrono when he's forcing me to learn something new," the auburn haired girl puffed out her chest and mimicked Chrono's tone with little success, "Magic is not just about amounts you know. We have to take into account things like skill and circumstance as well!"

Naruto's face was curiously blank, "Something like that."

He frowned again as he discreetly listened in on the buzzing chatter in the room as condescending eyes gazed in their direction.

Subtly, he grasped the auburn haired girl's hand again and initiated a telepathic connection with her, _"Do you know why everyone is looking at us like that?" _

Rather than receiving a reply, he was surprised to see Nanoha lower her head and scuff the ground with the tip of her shoes.

"…_.Pigtails?" _

"_I-It's nothing. Maybe they've never seen a Mage from Earth, so don't worry about it." _Nanoha smiled uncertainly but before Naruto could point out how the only person naïve enough to believe something like that was Fate, a floating magical array appeared over the heads of the examinees, **"It's time for the exam to start. Everyone please make your way into the exam hall in an orderly manner." **

Sighing, Naruto decided to let it go and stood up, tugging Nanoha behind him with a fierce glare at anyone who looked at them the wrong way.

As the two of them took a seat at the very back of the hall while the woman on the speaker was welcoming all the candidates whose applications had been accepted for entry into the TSAB, Naruto flipped the paper on his desk and blankly stared at the questions printed on the white document.

He instantly began sweating buckets.

"**Good luck to all entrants." **

"Oh fuck."

******Caliburn Initiative******

The chirpy cat girl standing beside him chirped in amazement, "Yuuno-san is amazing isn't he?"

Chrono nodded grudgingly at the younger boy who was floating on the screen in a lotus position with truckloads of books drifted around him, swirling in incomprehensible patterns as the changeling's pupils rapidly flicked from place to place, somehow picking out the most relevant pieces of information from the hundreds of books swirling around him spontaneously, "He certainly has talent in information gathering."

"Hehehe, there you again, being all tsundere." Lotte teased her little protégé.

The raven haired boy sighed at the incessant teasing and adjusted his black robes, "I'm going to get a glass of water, do you want some as well?"

The cat girl shrugged, a long and fluffy tail waving happily in the air behind her, "Why not. I'm feeling a little thirsty as well."

As the two of them left the Infinite Library, Chrono took a turn down a dark hall, prompting Lotte to frown and call out uncertainly, ""Chrono? You haven't been away long enough to forget your way around here have you?"

The 12 year old Mage stopped in the middle of the hall, _"Bind." _

The brown haired girl squawked and toppled over onto the ground in a heap as bluish chains made of magic formed around her torso, "Ch-Chrono? Even if you like me, this is going too far isn't it? I mean, I don't really swing this way…."

Ignoring her attempts to fluster him, Chrono frowned as he bent over the girl and pulled up her blouse silently to reveal a set of bandages, "This morning, when you hugged me, you flinched a little. I was wondering why you kept favouring your side." He quietly murmured to himself.

"I-I was hurt in a training match with Aria, you know she gets when we're training." The cat girl whined defensively.

"Naruto-san is many things, but an idiot he is not. He purposely allowed himself to be court marshalled in order to broadcast the fact that we managed to hurt the perpetrator but phrased it in such a way to seem as if we did not know there were in fact TWO perpetrators, luring them into a false sense of security while keeping the wound. I didn't realize it myself at first, but after we watched the recordings, he pointed out how it wasn't possible for the one that attacked Nanoha-san to be completely healed and recharged when he had beaten the crap out of the first one not five minutes ago." Gritting his jaw, Chrono ripped the bandages away to reveal a whorl shaped wound carved into her flesh.

When the familiar only stared at him mutely, the black haired boy grunted as he ran one hand through his hair in frustration, "When I realized you were favouring your side, I wondered why you chose not to see a healer. Nor was there any reason for you to heal the traditional way especially since Admiral Gil has long since stopped taken an active role. It's because of this rather distinctive wound isn't it?"

Falling onto his posterior, the young boy buried his face into his hands, "Why Lotte? Why are you helping the Book of Darkness? Admiral Gil and the two of you are probably the three people who I never thought would have done this. You hated that Lost Logia even more than I did…."

"And that's precisely why we chose to do this." A calm voice answered from behind the young Enforcer, prompting him to shoot upwards into a defensive stance.

"Calm down, Chrono." The second of the Liese twins spoke evenly as she held up her hands in surrender, "Now that you already know, there's no reason for us to attack you. Instead, we want you to talk to Admiral Gil and see things from his perspective. Maybe we can find a compromise."

Chrono chewed his lower lip and slowly materialized his staff and released Lotte's binding slowly, "Alright…. Lead the way."

With his staff held at ready, the Enforcer carefully followed the two twins, being extra mindful just in case the two of them tried to pull something on him. Fortunately for the boy's already strayed and confused nerves, the two of them displayed no hostility whatsoever and stayed true to their words as they led him to the Admiral's private rooms where the man himself calmly sat on the sofa awaiting him.

His self-confidence and assurance only served to confuse the boy even further.

"I see you've already found out." The man said without preamble.

Chrono kept his staff steadily trained on the three of them, "I have, but no matter how I spin it, I can't think of an explanation about why you would help the Book of Darkness."

"Would you agree with me that the Book of Darkness is something that must be destroyed no matter what?" the old man asked calmly, "Right now, I would not hesitate to call that thing a catastrophe. If it had hands, those hands would be pouring with blood from the thousands, nay millions of lives it has claimed, including that of your father from its awakening 11 years ago."

There was something in the question that made the young boy rather wary, but he nodded in agitation anyway, "I do…. But that just makes me think what you're doing is even worse."

The old man glanced at where Aria was wounding a new set of bandages over Lotte's wounds, "You are also already aware that the Book of Darkness has become something of a naturally reoccurring disaster do you not? No matter what we've done; brute force, seals, forcibly hacking into its administration program," He slammed the tea cup on the table to signal his anger; "Nothing has worked. Destroying it merely allows the Book of Darkness to reform in another part of the universe where it begins the cycle anew while its security is too tight for us to do anything about its programming. Absorbing cores from everyone around it before destroying anything and everything around it, the last awakening being the only exception since it was the middle of a transport. Even then, every single life aboard the Hestia was lost in vain. But after a full decade of planning, I stumbled onto an old artefact." The old man carefully laid a bluish card shaped Device on the tea table for Chrono's benefit.

Bit by bit, the S2U was lowered as doubt filled Chrono.

"The Durandal specializes in freezing magic; its greatest function allows the user to freeze the target in a special pocket dimension but it won't work until the Book of Darkness is fully awakened. Anything before that will simply allow it to reform somewhere else again. At first, I didn't think that the Book would reappear in my lifetime, imagine my happiness when I realized that I would be able to deal with it with my own two hands. Presumably, a fully awakened Book of Darkness will be able to escape from its entrapment, but not for a long time." Gil Graham leaned forward with bright eyes, "Time that we can use to find a TRUE way to destroy that damned Book."

"Wait, fully awakened?" The raven haired boy perked up and he frowned, "From everything we've gathered about the Book, that means the Book will have full control over the Mage's body as a medium isn't it? Doesn't that mean we'll be damning the Mage as well?"

"And why is that a problem? This Mage you speak of is obviously using the Book for his own selfish goals, is he not? Sending the Wolkenritter out to do his bidding by gathering cores and hurting others, including your adopted sister among others." The old Admiral pointed out reasonably as he leaned into his comfy sofa.

Seeing the 12 year old boy wavering, Gil Graham smiled warmly, "I don't expect you to make a decision now. I only ask that you think about it. Think about the costs and benefits. We might finally have a chance at truly destroying an abomination that has literally destroyed worlds, at the cost of one measly life of a twisted Warlock."

"You can finally get vengeance for your father…."

******Caliburn Initiative******

Nanoha groaned as she cradled her limp hand, "That was the longest test I've ever had to take."

When she received no reply from her friend, she threw a glance over her shoulder only to find Naruto moping in a corner with a cloud of woe over his head. Grinning mischievously, she tapped his back with her other hand, "Looks like you haven't changed all that much huh?"

The blonde moped even harder at her jab.

"Oh c'mon, it wasn't that bad…. Even though I had no idea what happened in 0020…."

Her grin widened viciously as the blonde actually began blubbering as he beat his fists into the linoleum floor in full view of every leaving exam taker.

"I wonder how we'll do. Fate scored full marks you know, and this was just theory. There's still rituals…. Spell creation… and a practical. I'm pretty confident, but you've never even made a single spell or tried a ritual before have you?"

Naruto clung to her skirt and flat out began bawling into the soft material, much to the auburn haired girl's utter amusement at seeing the usually self-assured blonde break down so completely.

Ah…. The smell of despair in the evening.

She was about to continue teasing Naruto when someone forcefully bumped into her from behind, "Oops, didn't see you there little girl." The person apologized in a condescending tone, "Oh my, it's the little girl from #97 and her little friend."

"Eh… is he crying? I saw him drooling all over his paper in the hall."

"Seriously, wasn't there this fuss at the back of the hall when he started trying to burn the hall down as well?"

Nanoha sweat dropped, so that's what all the screaming had been about…

The group of teenage girls tittered loudly, "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but we have more important things to do." The leader; a blue haired woman in surprisingly sedate clothing waved at Nanoha as she left, "Bye bye~ Try not to accidentally help any major criminals now shall we?"

"Why yo-" Naruto surged forward with his fists raised when Nanoha grabbed his arm and refused to let go.

"Bu-but…"

"Just let it go, Naruto." She murmured with her head bowed.

The blonde sighed and scratched the back of his head, seeing the normally upbeat girl so down, he just couldn't say no, "Alright, alright…."

The two of them stood in the emptying corridor silently for a few moments until Naruto spoke again, "What's taking Uke so long?"

"Oh, ah!" Nanoha fumbled around in her breast pocket before extracting a small crimson orb, "Raising Heart, did you get any messages?"

**[Yes, my master. Sir Chrono apologizes for being unable to meet up with you and the idiot-]**

"Oi! Did I just hear something really rude?"

**[and he asks that the two of you make your way back home without him.]**

"She's ignoring me now..." Naruto looked at the flushed girl with a gimlet eye, "Exactly what in the world have you been telling that eyeball about me?"

"No-nothing." The young Mage answered evasively, "An-anyway, we should get going since Chrono-san isn't coming to pick us up. I know the way well enough so we should be fine."

Naruto rolled his eyes and followed behind the energetic girl at a slightly slower pace.

As the two nine year olds rematerialized in the Harlaown household's teleporter, they were greeted by an anxiously smiling Lindy, "How was it? Did the two of you do well?"

Nanoha smiled brightly, "It was alright, Lindy-san. Fate-chan's notes really helped me!"

The green haired woman sighed in relief as she hugged the young girl warmly, "That's good…?" when she caught sight of the blonde boy who had crawled underneath a table to mope again.

"That bad?"

Nanoha's grin was the widest yet, "That bad. He tried to burn the hall down."

Lindy smiled humorously as she pulled the dull eyed boy from under the table and hugged the small boy as well. She was fully aware of him actually being six years older than Chrono, but she was confident that no one could resist those trembling lips and big blue eyes when they watered like that.

Not to mention he was really cuddly and warm too, "Maa, maa. Don't worry, there's always next time."

"Hauu….."

Sighing happily she stood up again and ruffled their hair with a warm smile as she gave both of them a proper once over. Hiding a slight frown, she nudged the boy, "Neh, Naruto? Why don't you take Nanoha home? It's not good for a pretty young girl like her to walk home all alone."

"E-Eh? No, I'll be fine." Nanoha managed to stutter out when the blonde gripped her hand roughly and pulled her along with a grumpy expression. Whether or not it was because of her teasing or his abysmal exam was subject to debate.

**Play ****BONNIE PINK – Ring a Bell**

As Nanoha trailed behind the slightly shorter blonde boy, she idly kicked at the pebbles on the ground. So involved was she with her internal thoughts that she failed to notice the blonde boy had stopped to watch her stumble along in a half daze.

It seemed like whenever she thought that no one was watching her, Nanoha had this tendency to start doubting herself.

"Are you sure you're alright?" the former shinobi asked gruffly. He didn't think trying to cross fists with her would be considered polite.

The auburn haired girl jerked as if startled, "Huh? Oh, I'm-"

"Save it for Fate." Naruto dryly cut in.

Nanoha pouted at him, "You couldn't at least let me finish my sentence?"

Completely unaffected by the whole puppy eye thing, the blue eyed blonde stared at her with one raised eyebrow, causing Nanoha to roll her eyes in resignation, "Has anyone told you that you're really stubborn?"

"A few." Naruto replied blandly.

"You mean everybody?"

"Something like that." He hedged awkward, "Now talk."

She rolled her eyes again at his bluntness and gingerly took a seat on the riverside they had been walking along with a sigh.

Her purple eyes glittered in the light of the setting sun, "It was a month or so ago, at the time I was still competing with Fate to gather the Jewel Seeds. Things got a little messed up and I ended up siding with Fate and her mother against Chrono and the TSAB for a while. When things calmed down, I was scolded for things like endangering the lives of thousands of people, that I could have irreversibly messed up the Mages First Contact with the people of Earth."

She pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed, "I didn't really get it. I was just an ordinary third grader…. Magic was like some wonderful thing, that it was the power of my beliefs…. And I truly believed that Fate was not wrong."

"In the end, I was let off with a simple warning; they said that it was understandable. People like me, mages from a backwater planet like Earth wouldn't have grown up with the lessons that people like Chrono would have had while growing up, that I was a child that didn't understand the implications of her actions at the time. They hoped I would learn from my mistakes in the future, that magic was not a toy. It's a privilege that we should use responsibly for the good of everybody else."

Naruto could only awkwardly stare at her, not knowing what to say and feeling more than a little stupid for pushing the matter.

The auburn haired girl smiled weakly, "It's a little strange, I grew up believing magic to be…. Magic. Something that could not be quantified, and now it's all gotten a little complicated. Arrays, formulas, strategies."

She discreetly wiped her eyes, "I even tried talking to Yuuno or Chrono about this but they…. They don't understand. To them this is something so ingrained in them that everything I say is like asking a kindergarten student why the sky is blue….. But in the end, you can't really think of that as magic can you?"

"I'm not sure…. The term Magic and its underlying concepts have no meaning to me though it seems to be an analogue of my chakra." The blonde boy replied frankly, "So I'll have to take your word for it."

The young Mage chuckled wetly, "That's right. You're from somewhere completely different weren't you? Sometimes I forget."

Naruto hummed in the affirmative as he pondered the dark river, "By the way, what is this _First Contact_ you were talking about?"

Nanoha smiled thinly as she recognized the attempt to change the subject for what it was, "I'm not very sure either, all I know is that introducing magic to people who don't know, or haven't developed the capability themselves is bad and people might misuse it without the proper guidelines in place."

The blonde muttered to himself for a moment before clapping one fist into his palm, "I get it! It's like that proverb isn't it? Err…. Light a man a fire and he will be warm for the night, but light a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his very short life... or something like that."

"Somehow, I don't think that that's how the proverb was meant to be used." Nanoha commented dryly, "But yes, if I think about it, it's surprisingly apt."

She sighed and stood up, patting the dirt from her skirt, "Anyway, it's time to go. I still have to get ready and meet up with Fate-chan at the hospital."

Naruto watched as Nanoha walked away, and he understood a little. Some people may not have forgiven Nanoha for choosing her emotions over logic, but most of all, Nanoha hadn't really forgiven herself either. Instead, rather than picking one over the other, she was now trying to find a path in which her emotions and wishes paralleled logic.

She really was strong wasn't she?

As the two nine year olds reached the Takamachi home, Naruto spun around and was about to leave when a flushed Nanoha called out, "Ano…. Why don't you come in and have some tea first? It's a little cold…. And eh… as… thanks."

Naruto cocked his head, "Why not. I don't really have anything to do anyway…."

"You could always come to the hospital with us."

"Hell no." the blonde instantly replied as he brushed past her with a smile and he greeted her older sister energetically, "Yo, Miyuki-nee!"

"Naru-chan! You're just in time. I have something for you." The brown haired girl in the sailor uniform held out a plate of rather delicious looking cake.

"Ohohoh! I'd never say no to cake."

Miyuki smiled sweetly as she watched the bouncing blonde devour the cake, "When you're done…. I have a favour to ask in return…"

The little boy sweat dropped mid chew, "This is getting to be a habit with me and your family isn't it? You guys are going to bribe me with sweets before blackmailing me?"

"Maaa….. I rather call it cooperative play, besides I think you're going to like this. I have a few new creations I need you to try out for me."

"….. Every single one of you are devils."

"First… prepare the gelatin and sugar…. Then throw in some cocoa powder…."

"Sounds normal…."

"Then some sulphuric acid and acetic acid for taste…"

"Holy crap. Okaa-san, Otou-san, I'm might be seeing you a little earlier than expected!"

Giggling to herself as Miyuki-nee chan teased Naruto mercilessly; the auburn haired girl climbed the stairs to her room and entered her room. Sighing, she dropped Raising Heart onto the table and was about to throw herself onto her bed when she realized there was something that hadn't been there before sitting on the pillow.

She wondered when the irritating blonde had managed to find the time to sneak up to her room and drop another one of his little fox puppets on her bed.

******Caliburn Initiative******


	6. Sixth Step: This Sucks

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 6 **

**Sixth Step**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Much thanks and kudos also goes to Aleph and his Game Theory. **

Morganna VS. Now THAT's a constructive criticism. I'd point out that the long convoluted arcs you expect from us are exclusively Kishi's territory while I deal with the fromantic stuff as you put it, but I suppose I have to act the older-by-12-seconds sister _once in a while. _

Post edit note from Kishi: Was that 12 seconds thing really necessary? It was just your goddamned TOE.

**Soundtrack List**

Adam Lambert – What Do You Want From Me?

Miyazaki Ayumi – Brave Heart

HIGH AND MIGHT COLOR – PRIDE

******Caliburn Initiative******

"_You are loud, brash and you rely on a simple A-rank technique while spawning an army of Kage Bunshins to confuse your opponents for you. You're basically a one trick pony, any idiot who has seen you fight once only needs to watch out for any variations you might make from those two particular techniques. If those two still don't work, you'll resort to brute forcing your way through with Kurama or Sage Mode." _

_The third Tsuchikage, Lnoki smiled faintly as he bled out, "The way you fight, it is the most unsightly thing I've ever seen in all my time as a Shinobi but as a human, a person… it ain't too bad I guess. Maybe we've been at hopelessly pursuing an ideal strength by pointlessly isolating ourselves into villages for far too long to notice it, but we don't need a Shinobi to lead us anymore, we need a person."_

_Old hands wrinkled and dotted with age and liver spots grasped the wide eyed blonde's hands with surprising strength, "As much as I hated him, your father was one such person. Can you be that person now?" Lnoki gasped with one last shuddering breath before the grip on his fingers slackened._

******Calburn Initiative******

**Play Adam Lambert – What Do You Want From Me?**

Brown eyes opened sleepily as sunlight filtered through the curtains and the girl with the bob cut stretched pleasurably in her bed, "….Morning Vita-chan."

The red haired girl beside her grunted sleepily and burrowed deeper in the bed to avoid the inevitable. Hayate grinned widely and pulled a groaning Vita into a hug, "Ahh…. your bunny pyjamas are so cute…."

The groans began vaguely sounding like sobs.

Letting go of the sleeping Knight, Hayate pulled herself onto her wheelchair with a content smile and began wheeling herself so that she could start getting breakfast ready. Already used to living in a wheelchair, the girl with the bob cut hummed cheerfully as she entered the kitchen only to find the second of four Knights already singing cheerfully as she made fried eggs, "…Morning, Shamal."

"Hayate-chan," the aproned blonde woman hurried to her side with a concerned look, "Didn't I tell you that you don't have to push yourself? "

"That's okay, I'll help. " Hayate's lip twitched in a minute smile as she glanced at the blackened pile of what was meant to be fried eggs. With a practiced hand, the brown haired girl began cracking a new set of eggs into a bowl, "Where's Signum by the way? Ah, would you fry some bacon?"

She doubted the blonde woman could screw that up as long as she was watching.

Shamal only made a half-hearted smile at Hayate's insistence as she placed some bacon onto the frying pan, "Signum is in the backyard doing her morning swings."

Wiping her hands on a piece of cloth, Hayate hummed an affirmative as she expertly poured the egg mix into another pan before flipped the bacon.

"Once you done, shall we take a bath?" the mature blonde woman asked warmly, "I'll scrub your back for you."

Hayate pumped her fist cheerfully as she finished off the decoration on the salad, "Of course!"

Moments later, Signum entered the kitchen, wiping away her sweat with a fluffy towel," Shamal, is breakfast rea-" Looking around, she realized that the support mage wasn't there but breakfast was already prepared and sitting on the dining table. Shrugging, the rose haired woman decided to go and take a bath before rousing Vita, the heaviest sleeper of all of them.

As she entered the misty bathroom, the curvy woman began undressing when she heard giggling coming from behind the glass door.

"Ahhn…. That feels good… Shamal…."

Signum's eyebrow twitched at Hayate's moan.

"Fufufu. Really? Then I'll let you feel even better."

"Eh? Ah, Shamal tha…. Ahhhhh!"

"See? If I push harder it feels really good doesn't it?"

"No… " the brown haired girl protested weakly, "I can't stand it anymore…"

"Don't worry, this is the best part! One last push!"

Unable to take anymore, Signum burst through the glass doors, a vein twitching in her forehead, "What the hell do you think you're doing to Hayate, Shamal?!"

The two girls sitting in the bath tub looked up at her with wide innocent eyes, "Eh? ….I'm giving her a massage?" Shamal half asked, half stated with a tilt of the head.

As a slowly turning bright red Signum stood rooted the spot, Hayate grinned wickedly at her reaction, "And why were you so worried?' she leaned into the blonde woman sitting behind her, "Signum has a surprisingly dirty mind doesn't she, Shamal?"

"Maa…. Signum-chan has a lot of stress. Maybe we should give her a massage too?"

Hayate grinned and spoke in a mock pompous tone, "This is my order to you, Shamal, capture Signum and make her _relax_!"

"Wa-wai, No! **Gyaaah**!"

Half an hour later, a rosy cheeked and utterly satisfied Hayate was wheeled out of the bathroom with a flushed Shamal.

Behind Shamal was a lump of despair.

"I can't get married anymore…."

A wolf form Zafira who was lying at the bottom of the stairs in a spot of sun cocked his head at the three of them, "What's wrong with Signum?"

"She had a little too much fun," Hayate replied blithely before she seemed to think of something.

"Oh that's right… Zafira, can I ask for a favour?" She smiled sweetly.

Sensing a threat to his life and dignity, the blue wolf began backing away from his Master, "I finished a few more cuuute outfits for you last night. They'll go along _perfectly _with your collar."

Zafira jumped out the second floor window without any hesitation whatsoever.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"UWOOH! She can cook! This actually tastes surprisingly good!"

A fist _gently _bonked him upside the head, "And what is _that _supposed to mean? I cooked all of this because Lindy-san and Chrono-kun were busy, shouldn't you at least thank me?"

"It meant that I was scared shitless after seeing Miyuki-nee cook." Naruto admitted with a strained-smile.

Nanoha sweat dropped. The blonde was surprisingly gullible, "I grew up in a café you know. I've been cooking ever since I could walk."

Fate nudged her adopted brother and best friend gently, "Shouldn't the two of you hurry up?" She motioned at her own empty bento, "The two of you haven't finished your homework, and it's due later today."

The blonde girl grinned faintly as both of them made the exact same open mouthed expression and began to stuff their faces in a big hurry.

"Pigtails, Hurry up and finish so I copy yours!"

"Stop dream talking!"

The flame haired Arisa cocked her head in thought, ignoring the unsightly duo, "What class is after this by the way?"

"Uhm…. Wasn't it Physical Ed?"

The ojou-sama sighed, "PE? I wish I could just pretend to be sick."

Fate smiled innocently, "Why? You do quite well in that class. Well, actually you do well in every class."

Arisa, who was the top student overall in their grade grunted in an unladylike manner, "But it's so boring sometimes… I wish I was like you and Naruto-san. The teachers are more lenient with the two of you because the two of you aren't good with Kanji."

"It's not very fair is it?" the blonde haired girl admitted with a nod.

"Nah, don't worry about it. At least you make up for it in all our math classes. You and Nanoha are way beyond us when it comes to that for some reason." Arisa muttered grudgingly as Fate smiled uneasily, their mastery of Math were thanks in no part to the mental arithmetic required in structuring magic circles.

"That brother of yours on the other hand…." Arisa trailed off with a snort to herself as she glanced at the blonde boy who was hurriedly scribbling something into a book, presumably yesterday's homework, "I don't think I've seen anybody fail that hard. At least Suzuka is acceptable, Naruto-san flat out fails."

The quiet dark haired girl sitting beside Arisa flushed red at the compliment.

"The two of them are really good at sports though." Fate pointed out softly, "They're the top of the class in sports for the boys and girls respectively."

Arisa rolled her eyes, "You're too soft on him Fate; people need education nowadays. Just having a good body is not enough!" She paused for moment and seemed to think of something, "I know! Why don't you drag him to another one of our study sessions? Our goal is to enter the same college university together!" The brown haired girl declared with an enthusiastic pump of the fist.

Fate snickered to herself at the offer, though it was a little presumptuous, it was simply Arisa's own way of caring for her friends.

Then again, she sincerely doubted the blonde boy would agree to that proposition without a heavy bribe of some kind. Settling back into her chair, she smiled to herself as a young man in a green jersey opened the door, "Oi, you kids ready for P.E? Girls get to play volleyball and the guys get to choose whether they want to play basketball or soccer! Don't forget to warm up first!"

"Hai, Yuzumoto-sensei!"

Beside her, the blonde boy shot up with a shout of happiness as he darted out of the door with several other boys behind him. Fate was about to follow until she felt Nanoha stagger into her back, clinging to the blonde girl with tears in her eyes, "Hauu… I don't like sports…."

The soft spoken blonde girl smiled and hugged Nanoha, "Don't worry, I'll protect you. Always."

Nanoha's wide purple eyes blinked slowly, "It's just volleyball….?"

******Caliburn Initiative******

Naruto smiled breathlessly as he leapt backwards, preventing a brown haired boy from stealing the large orange basketball bouncing between his left hand and the floor. Rubber sneakers squeaking on the court, Naruto made to move to the right before spinning around in a feint and darting underneath his guard's outstretched hands.

Speeding towards the opponent's hoop in an orange blur that was too fast to block, the blonde stopped short of the defender before leaping six feet up into the air and smashing the ball straight into the basketball hoop with inordinate ease.

Grinning, the whiskered blonde raised his hands and waved at the cheers coming from his fellow teammates that accompanied the groans from his opponents.

As everyone moved back into position for the next round, Naruto glanced at the clocks and noted that there was only twenty seconds left on the timer. Determined to make one last score, Naruto clenched and unclenched his right fist, the blonde stood face to face with another boy in a white shirt as they bounced the basketball back between each other twice before the black haired boy spun the rubbery ball to his team mate that ran around the skilled blonde.

Grinning viciously, Naruto began chasing the player with number 11 plastered onto the back of his white singlet, as opposed to the number one sewn onto the back of his red singlet.

It wasn't really fair to them to be honest.

To him, they were practically moving in slow motion. Sky blue eyes caught every twitch their muscles made, telegraphing their moves as clear as day. Skidding beside the boy, Naruto handily swiped the basketball from under his grip before the boy even had time to react and jumped ten feet into the air.

All the way from the other end of the court, the basketball sailed through the air in a graceful arc, beautifully swooping into the hoop perfectly.

The boy in the white shirt, Hideyoshi simply sighed in resignation with an exasperated smile as Naruto landed in front of him with a wide smile. Hideyoshi smiled gracefully as he slapped the panting blonde on the back, "It's just not fair when you're playing but good game, Naruto-san."

"Meh, cheer up. I'll be on your side the next round." Naruto replied easily as he high fived his smiling team mates.

Hideyoshi rolled his eyes as he threw the blonde a bottle of water, "What I wouldn't give to see you go up against Suzuka-chan or your sister. What the hell do your parents feed the two of you anyway?"

"I'll tell you what she WON'T feed us." Naruto moped in a corner, "RAMEN that's what… she plain hates junk food of any kind."

"I suppose that probably helps the two of you jump around like freaking grasshoppers…" Hideyoshi admitted with a half-smile, "Tell you what, you win the next game for us, I'll treat you to a bowl of ramen."

The blonde boy practically teleported from the corner and prostrated himself to his new god, "I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! Be your slave even! Just give me RAMEN!"

"Stop kissing my leg! That's creepy dammit!" the two boys laughed as Hideyoshi pushed Naruto away from him playfully.

As the blonde hit the floor, he stretched out on the polished wooden floor comfortably, "Ah…. I haven't had that much fun in a **long **time."

"You live with Fate-san. That's all the fun you need." Hideyoshi shot back with some jealousy colouring his tone.

Naruto hid a mischievous smirk as he noticed someone entering the gym from his spot on the floor, "You want to stay with her? Why is that?"

"Who wouldn't?" the slender boy who had his hair pulled back into a small ponytail retorted with a dreamy smile, "Fate-san is basically the perfect girl… she's smart, she's good at sports, she's beautiful and she's incredibly kind…."

"She also happens to be behind you." Naruto added glibly as he propped himself one hand to grin at the red faced girl who had unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on whom you asked, heard everything the love sick boy was spouting.

"Yo-you're joking right?" Hideyoshi's eyes went wide as he made begging motions for Naruto to confirm his question, to tell him that this was a bad dream.

The blonde simply coughed politely and waved casually, "Yo, Nee-chan. You've got an admirer. Do you want me to leave you two alone?"

The brown haired boy stomped on Naruto's foot, mouthing something at the grinning blonde.

Something along the lines of,_ 'I'll hate you for the rest of my life!'_ Before spinning around to see his worst nightmare shuffling her feet in a painfully cute albeit shy manner, "Ahhh! Pl-Please ignore that, I was just talking to myself!" He explained shrilly before abruptly running away, trailing a head of steam behind him.

You could almost hear the sound of a nine year old's crush get shattered into a thousand pieces.

As the two blondes watched the poor blonde boy run screaming and crying into the horizon, a red faced Fate nudged Naruto with a toe, "You're _mean_."

"I was just doing my brotherly duties." Naruto pointed out with a straight face at the blonde girl standing above him as he pulled himself upright, "Besides, would you have me any other way?"

He was answered by a soft laugh as she dropped a towel on his head, "Hurry and clean up. Nanoha-chan is waiting for us."

"Osu."

The blonde girl began humming to herself as she patiently waited for Naruto on the bleachers when she heard someone calling out to her, "Fate-chan!"

The young girl quirked her head demurely at the group of boys that had just exited the changing rooms, "Ah… Good evening. Can I help you?"

The blushing boy grinned stupidly much to his friends amusement, even more so when he began stumbling over his own words, "A-Ah, n-no. I just wanted to thank you for lending me your notes again!"

"Ah?! You borrowed something from Fate-chan again!? You traitor!"

"Again?! You're not forgetting your stuff on purpose are you, you cheeky bastard?!"

"I-It's only occasionally yo! Stop it!"

Such were the words coming from the group of boys, causing her to smile and bow politely, "It was my pleasure."

As the group of blushing boys left with waves, Fate smiled to herself.

"You're pretty popular aren't you, _Nee-chan_?" a voice drawled from behind her.

The blonde girl was ashamed to admit it, but she almost jumped in her seat as she whirled around to see the blonde boy sitting on the chair behind her, chin propped on one fist and looking vaguely amused, "_Don't do that_, Naruto-kun! When did you get out anyway? I didn't see you at all!"

The boy stood up, hefting his bag over one shoulder and grinned at the girl who had one hand clutched to her chest, "I wouldn't be a very good shinobi if you _did _see me now, would I?"

Together, the two blondes began heading for the school gates where Nanoha was presumably waiting once Fate had regained her breath, "No you wouldn't." Fate admitted quietly, "It's actually rather interesting. Would you mind teaching me how to move like you do?"

"I don't see why not," Naruto drawled lazily, "It's really a matter of perception and motion. People tend to focus on movement, like how a moving dot would draw attention more than a stationary one, and landmarks so to speak." He tugged his orange scarf for emphasis, "For example, once they see me, most people would subconsciously tag the colour orange to my presence. That's one marker, while the other probably would be for my hair and whiskers. The general rule would be to remove those markers from your person and move in a less deliberate manner."

"Sounds…. Difficult." Fate admitted, "How would you move _'less deliberately'_, as you put it?"

"Ehhh…." Naruto scratched his cheeks uncertainly, "Not really sure how to put it in words. I can show you though."

Fate smiled beatifically, "I look forward to your instruction, otouto-kun."

Naruto sweat dropped, "That sounds _really _lousy."

"You started it."

"Can I change my mind?"

"Nope. I like the sound of Nee-chan." Fate retorted with a grin and skipped ahead, leaving a resigned Naruto to follow behind.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Oi, Shop keeper! This ramen is salty!

"Then stop _**crying **_into the goddamned bowl!"

******Caliburn Initiative******

The blonde boy sighed happily as he took a seat in front of Yuuno, "Taking a nice long bath after an exercise always feels awesome."

The pale haired boy sent him an exasperated look as he took a lotus position on the stiff backed sofa, "So you mean you weren't _just _trying to run away from your lessons?"

"That might have been part of it." Naruto saluted the boy in front of him, "Everyone says that you're the best person to teach me about spell creations and rituals though."

"I've only ever taught Nanoha-san before though…." Yuuno muttered to himself as he glanced aside. The two of them were seated in the viewing booth of Arthra's simulation room. Separated from them by a transparent screen were Nanoha and Fate who were having a training session with each other.

Heaving one last sigh, the green eyed boy mentally pumped himself up, "Alright, let's start then. First, create a magic circle." Naruto mimicked the boy by holding up one open palm, "Hold the image of a perfect sphere of clear glass in your mind and sort of push it outwards."

A floating forest green outline of a circle appeared with a wave of Yuuno's hand. Frowning as his hands did nothing but send a puff of dark blue chakra outwards, Naruto tried harder and harder only to come up short, causing the ferret boy to smile weakly, "Imagine first Naruto-san. You're not thinking of anything right now. Think of a circle, hold that image and project."

The blonde blinked and wrenched his eyes shut.

Slowly a hazy dark blue circle began appearing in front of his outstretched palm.

"Good," Yuuno slowly coaxed, "It'll get easier with practice until you can instinctively do it, but for now, that will do. Some people find it easier to use words as triggers rather than imaging but that's something we'll try out later. This is the basic circle platform, sort of like a blank piece of paper. Every spell starts here, so theoretically, anyone can learn someone else's spell as long as they have the same equation, but ultimately every spell variation has its own quirks the same way there are all kinds of personalities. Sometimes it's just a matter of temperament; sometimes they just don't have the necessary power." The nine year old teacher waved his free hand and materialized three glowing, wiggly runes of some sort, "This portion is one of Mid-Childa's most basic spell."

Clasping his two hands together, he caused the runes to fit themselves neatly on the empty circle.

"You see what I did?" When the blonde silently nodded with a surprisingly focused expression, Yunno continued, "I _wrote _three words on a piece of paper and created a sentence, an equation. This one is a simple illusion spell that almost every kindergarten uses to assess a child's potential in two ways. First, it takes a certain amount of magic to be able to activate it, and secondly, without active input from the caster, the spell simply projects the user's state of mind so to speak."

Three shaky versions of Yuuno's alphabets slowly appeared before the entire thing dissolved like flour in water as Naruto slumped forwards with a heavy groan, "I can't do it!" the blonde declared, "Just keeping my mind on that stupid circle is taking everything I have."

The difference between his shaky, hazy circle and Yuuno's clearly defined, structured spell array was like night and day.

The young Mage smirked as he tried to goad the blonde into trying again, "Really? Nanoha successfully cast it the first time you know."

Naruto sighed softly, "Pigtails was that good? You can't really tell huh?" the blonde chuckled to himself quietly.

"Actually, she took to it like fish to water. Even if she had Raising Heart's assistance, I've never seen anyone else learn to create spells so smoothly." Yuuno commented seriously, "Most people don't either; I just wanted you to at least try to manually cast your own spell first." He admitted sheepishly, "The basic idea is that they sort of pre-program the _equation _they want into the Device's memory beforehand and simply invoke the spell when they need it, leaving them free to use their mental capacity for other things… like aiming or dodging a potentially lethal blow."

"Then how do **you** do it, ferret?" Naruto grunted and turned over so that he was on his back, "I've seen you fight without one though. In fact, you threw those really complicated circles around like spare change."

"I'm something of an exception." Yuuno hedged, "And so are you actually."

Naruto shot upwards with glittering eyes, "Me?"

The pale haired boy nodded slowly, "I received notification from Lindy-san that you have your own sort of internalized and largely instinctual magic system so they probably won't test you too extensively on Mid-Childan spells but the real reason I'm saying this is because of Caliburn. Have you tried it yet?"

"Nope. Lindy-san said that it was still wasn't ready. Wait, does that mean I don't have to learn this stuff?"

Yuuno grinned maliciously as the blonde boy bounced energetically, "I said they might not test you too much on them, not that they won't. You would do well to learn at least one or two spells from each category."

Naruto groaned to himself. Testing out his arsenal of spells from every category?

This was sounding more and more like a Jounin exam, "Bu-But Caliburn is a Device right? So can't just _borrow_ something from Nanoha or you? Your healing spell was really cool!"

The green eyed boy sweat dropped, "Didn't you at least read the manual like you were supposed to?"

"….Manual? You mean that really thick book that I'm currently using as a chair?"

"Yeah that one."

"Nope. Read it for me ferret?"

"How can I?" The archaeologist countered snidely, "I'm just a ferret after all."

Naruto instantly knelt in front of Yuuno in a dogeza," I'm sorry, you're not a ferret; you're a wonderfully skilled boy with a fur fetish." Blue eyes glittered wetly as they looked up at him piteously, "Please explain it for me now?"

"That last part wasn't necessary." Yuuno pointed out before sighing in resignation, "Unlike most Devices which simply draw from the Linker Core to directly to power a recorded invocation, yours won't be able to store spell arrays, mostly because its memory capacity will be used for something else. What it WILL be able to do however, is a variation of the Cartridge system. Each loaded Cartridge will automatically copy the structure of the next spell that you are **hit **with, allowing you to use that spell once, and only once." The ferret boy cautioned seriously, "This is where your Cartridge system differs from both Fate-san's and Nanoha-san's. Where theirs were designed for a power boost with each shell, your Cartridge system was modified to stand alone without Caliburn's assistance because your Core would just fry its systems if it tried. That's why you can only use each Cartridge/spell once."

At the blonde's disappointed look, Yuuno shrugged with a faint smile, "On the other hand, due to your unique Core, you are free to charge the hell out of it and Caliburn will simply eject the spent shell once you're done."

Rather than react the way Yuuno had expected him to, the blonde instead leaned back into his seat with a strange expression, "From the way you speak about Caliburn, I get the impression that this is something that the TSAB really went out of their way to fix for me. Why is that? I may be powerful, but I don't really think I'm worth all the investment."

Yuuno imitated the blonde and leaned into the sofa with a serious expression, "I'm not sure. To be honest, I thought something was strange as well, what with them going through all the effort of accommodating you. Then again, they arguably made a few concessions on Nanoha-san's part as well, so maybe they're just that desperate for recruits. Besides, it's not just for you, logically, the Caliburn system could also be used to record any new spells for future analysis, ironically much like the Book of Darkness, but that's just me. It's also pretty much perfect for agile fighters who can't be bothered to stand around and wait for a spell to load but then…. I'm just a scholar and a ferret…. What would I know?"

Naruto ignored the sulking ferret in a corner of the room with surprising fortitude, "Hmm… how interesting."

Yuuno wiped his eyes and sniffed one last time before standing back up, "Enough of chatting. Let's try another spell, this time an offensive _Shoot Barret_."

"Nah. I've had enough for now."

The green eyed boy frowned, "You're giving up after failing just once?"

"I'm not giving up," Naruto replied blandly, "I just want to make sure I can do the illusion spell before I try something else. Can't be helped, I'm a slow learner after all." The blonde made a self-depreciating smile, "Besides, for now, I should be fine against a Mage even without Caliburn."

"How would you know? You've never fought with a Mage before have you?" A curious voice rang out in the small room.

The two males turned around to see Nanoha grinning at them as she wiped a smudge from her cheek.

"I'm just that awesome?" Naruto replied dryly.

"Really? Are you really good at fighting? We've only ever seen you try and fail to cast spells but we've never seen you fight."Nanoha leaned forward with a twinkle in her eyes, "Could we just have a simple practice match?"

"He doesn't have a Barrier Jacket, Nanoha-san." Yuuno hurriedly reminded the excited girl, much to a worried Fate's relief.

The energetic girl pouted at him, "Eeeh? But you could just cast a temporary shield spell on him right? Raising Heart and I will make sure to keep it safe as well."

"That is certainly possible…." The ferret Mage muttered doubtfully as he glanced at the blonde boy who simply shrugged as he began to stretch his limbs, "I don't mind. Go ahead."

Though he tried to look dismissively bored, the young archaeologist couldn't help but notice the interested shine in his blue eyes. Wondering why he was surrounded by battle maniacs, Yuuno began casting with a sigh as the three nine year olds returned to the simulation field.

The blonde tightened his orange scarf and studied the floating array position around his waist, "That's good for three hits, Naruto-san." A tinny voice echoed in his mind as Yuuno began tapping into the keyboard on the other side of the glass wall.

The expressionless blonde shrugged again, he seemed to be doing that a lot didn't he? "Three is more than enough."

Yuuno sighed again, "Are you really sure about this? This is going against every TSAB safety regulation…."

"Naruto snorted quietly, "Regulations exist for me to look even better when I shatter them." He muttered quietly as the two nine year olds began gearing up.

"GO!"

Naruto instantly burst into action with all the confidence of an old veteran.

Only to trip and skid all the way to Nanoha on his face.

"Ow….. Short legs…. **Short legs. SHORT LEGS**!" Naruto began turned the air blue with some rather interesting curses as Nanoha bit her lips to stop herself from bursting into laughter.

"_Oh yeah. Very awesome."_ The voice in his ear commented dryly.

"Hush you." Calming down forcibly, the blonde wiped the dust away from his squashed nose, "Let's all forget that little accident shall we?" prompting Nanoha to snort again and made a mental reminder to make several copies of the video of Naruto elegantly landing on his face.

**Play Miyazaki Ayumi – Brave Heart **

"Start running." Floating orbs of pink energy began floating around Nanoha as she grinned at the blonde, _"Axel Shooter!" _

He would have said something about cheating, but he was too busy back flipping into order to avoid the flying little missiles that bombarded the ground around him. Somersaulting high into the air, the blonde landed in a cat like pose and pushed off like a bullet, barely avoiding a rain of fragments from the last exploding missile when an enormous pink beam cut through the field towards him, stopping his dash towards Nanoha short.

Skidding to a stop, the blonde boy was forced to jump aside and frown as the rain of pink missiles seamlessly began again.

The blonde began sweating as the relentless missiles began to drive him into a corner and not for the first time in his life he mourned his lack of ranged attacks.

Frustrated that her attacks were going nowhere with the overly agile blonde, the purple eyed girl changed her tactics, _"Restrict Lock!"_

Seeing the incoming net of energy, Naruto back flipped into the air again to hide his hands. Mid-air, the blonde blurred and separated into three distinct individuals, _"Tsuga!"_

The first and foremost blonde blocking Nanoha's view of the other two clones disappeared with a simple pop as an orange tornado of claws exploded from behind him on its way to Nanoha with surprising speed.

Unseen to everyone, the third clone sank into the ground with a grin.

"_Round Shield!" _ As a wave of light pink energy spread from a lifted Raising Heart, Nanoha yelped when the tornado hit the shield head on with enough force to jar her. Feeling her footing start to crack under the tornado's onslaught, Nanoha pushed the drill like _Tsuga _back with a burst of energy and leapt backwards for some space. She was about to begin to casting another _Divine Buster _when somebody locked her joints from behind, eliciting another surprised yelp from the auburn haired girl, "…Wha?!"

"Yield, Pigtails. I'm fairly sure you can't move right now." A dry voice noted from behind her.

Flooding her muscles with magic, Nanoha struggled as hard as she could but the joint lock held firm, though she was gratified to hear the blonde grunting with the effort.

"…. I yield." Nanoha relaxed her limbs and slumped into the blonde's arms, feeling a little tired out after using a technique that she was unused too.

"Good girl." Without saying anything else, the blonde carried the girl back to the benches with a stoic face.

"How did you get behind me?"

"You're slow on the ground. In the air, I would have lost without question." The whiskered boy above her commented, "Should I assume that Fate had a similarly tough time trying to even get near you with that onslaught?"

Nanoha chuckled, "Sort off."

Placing the girl down as if she was a fragile flower, Naruto stood back up and turned around to face his adopted sister who had her eyes narrowed at him shrewdly.

"Your turn?"Naruto smiled faintly.

"Go, Fate-chan! Beat him up!" Nanoha yelled loudly.

Seeing Nanoha urge her on so excitedly, the blonde girl only made a half-hearted smile as she beckoned for the shinobi join her on the field.

"Bardiche,_ Sonic Forme."_ She ordered softly even before Naruto had taken his own stance.

**[Yes, sir... Haken.]**

The blonde pursed his lips with one quirked eyebrow as the nine year old girl's staff began emitting a scythe like blade of light while her heavy cloak disappeared into light particles; her long sunshine yellow hair began flowing in a non-existent wind as she imbued her limbs with enough magic for him to feel.

"I won't go easy on you." Fate promised with a smile.

"Then neither will I." Naruto crossed his arms, "_Sage Mode_."

Dust and small rocks were blown away by a shock wave.

In the booth, Yuuno only blinked as the console keeping record of both fighters' magic levels began skyrocketing.

Both of them disappeared before the ferret even had the chance to say anything, reappearing right in the middle of the field, fist against blade of light with a massive explosion of air before disappearing again.

"_Plasma Lancer!" _Bolts of lightning spread out across the field evenly, hampering Naruto's movement as he strove to dodge the bolts in between expert slashes from the red eyed blonde girl. Unlike Nanoha who had magic in spades but lacked the technical expertise, Fate was a focused and well-rounded opponent with both the power and the knowledge to use it, and a grinning Naruto found himself in an exhilarating battle.

Fate similarly had a wide grin on her lips as she avoided an axe kick that cracked the entire field, looping around into a counter slash that was blocked by a dirty blue aura around the blonde's forearms. One fist wrapped around Bardiche's stave and tried to pull it out of her hand but she held fast. Just like that, the battle shifted into a centralized tornado of motion as ranged spells were instantly nullified, the two of them flowing around in each other with Bardiche sitting right in between.

She had always thought that the only reason Naruto was being recruited was due to his large magical potential.

There had been no proof to the contrary that the blonde was an actual fighter. Nothing save the fact that her whiskered opponent had an extremely large core and a large amount of scars. But right now, as she relished in the flow of adrenaline as she narrowly evaded lightning fast punches and kicks on par with her own, she found herself barely keeping up with the monstrously strong blonde when her pseudo brother, in a seemingly accidental moment of lapsed concentration allowed her to score the first hit by uppercutting his chin, only for him to flow with the momentum, driving one foot into her own chin, sending _both _of them rocketing away from each other. Freezing her momentum mid-flight, Fate quickly cast her best ranged attack, trusting Bardiche's accuracy.

"_Plasma Smasher!"_

When the dust finally cleared, she was treated to the sight of a disgruntled Naruto peering up at her from the ground, looking no worse for the wear except for a slight scratch on his cheek, "Yield. Once you started flying, there's absolutely nothing I could have done without resorting to drastic measures."

Fate laughed softly as she landed in an elegant manner, "I look forward to fighting with yo-" her words were cut off mid-sentence by a teary eyed Nanoha who had barrelled into her midriff, "That. Was. Awesome!" She squealed happily.

Smiling widely, Fate returned the hug with interest.

Naruto left the two girls alone, brushing the dirt off his scarf with a wry smile.

"Wait, Naruto!"

The blonde glanced over his shoulder, "What is it?"

"We're having dinner at my house, do you want to come?" Nanoha called out cheerfully.

Naruto waved over his shoulder, "I'll pass."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play HIGH AND MIGHT COLOR – PRIDE **

"Admiral Lindy knows how you fight doesn't she? You took that Plasma Smasher to the face without even flinching. That's the only reason I can think off that the Caliburn was made the way it was."

Naruto glanced at the pale haired boy who was staring at the screen with some disbelief, "Something like that." Naruto commented as he jumped onto the sofa with a grunt, "Going by what you said, I assume that I have to get hit by a spell just like that Plasma-something before I can use it?"

"According to the manual, yes." Yuuno briefly replied as he began downloading a recording of the battle into his storage Device.

"Huh. I wonder if that means I can use Starlight Breaker too…." Naruto muttered idly.

Yuuno smiled briefly at the blonde's question, "Probably…. Why don't you go and try to absorb it?"

"….Why are you smiling like that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not smiling because I'm fantasizing about Nanoha-san blowing you up at all….."

"It's creepy. Seriously, stop it."

"I seriously can't and I don't know why…. Incidentally let me know when you try alright?"

"I didn't know you were suicidal, but you definitely came to the right person for help." Seeing the blonde's chilling smile that was partially hidden by his orange scarf, the ferret changeling instantly decided to scurry out of the room, "By the way, I think I finally understand why Commander Bridget wants you in TSAB so badly."

The blonde shot up and was about to ask why when he realized that the ferret had already vacated the chamber. Left alone in the darkish room, Naruto stared at his right fist. A tiny spinning sphere of energy appeared on the tips of each finger before dispersing with a puff.

**[Seems a lot like a bijuu-dama doesn't it?] **

"A little. " Naruto agreed, "You just need enough concentration to deal with multiple different things rather than just spinning threads in multiple directions at high speed. Sort of like writing with both hands I guess. Though there's that entire '_different components do different things,'_ crap as well. Meh. It'll be easy…."

**[Right….. remind me again, how long did it take you to use one of those tiny blue balls with one hand again?] **The voice pointed out snidely before sighing,** [Eh, whatever. Anything that explodes is good for me. Just don't half-ass it with a pitiful clone just because you can. I can almost see you spawning more of your skinny butt just to make one array. By the Great Sage's balls, that was embarrassing.]**

"Hey, those _pitiful clones_ helped me make get the_ Rasengan_ to where it is today you know." Naruto replied defensively.

The voice in his head snorted, it sounded vaguely like someone had managed to stuff a trumpet in one of his ears before blowing on it.

**[It was nothing short of a miracle that so few, if any, of the idiots you fought ever took advantage of the opening between the time it takes you to make a clone, then a **_**Rasengan**_** before charging in like a wounded bull. If even ONE of them had the brains to put a fist through you rather than shoot their mouths off, you wouldn't have gotten that tiny blue ball ANYWHERE.]**

"That's what you have teammates for isn't it?"

**[Hmph… I rather you not need them in the first place, but eh. I suppose it's what meat bags like you do. Not everyone can be perfect like us.]**

Naruto laughed softly as the hazy dirty blue aura flickered in the dark room, throwing shadows that danced along with the sounds of Fate and Nanoha's battle, an empty circle made of the same ghostly flames floating above it his palm.

The blonde smiled thinly.

"….What a poor colour."

******Caliburn Initiative******

Chrono gently knocked on the steel door, "Lindy-taicho? You there?"

"Hmmm?" A familiar voice from inside the room replied, "Chrono? What is it?"

The door swung open to reveal the stiff lipped boy, unlike every single door on the Arthra, his mother had insisted that her quarters were to be built in a manner consistent with her fascination for Japanese culture, which meant an old fashioned swing open door with a knob rather than the automatic ones everyone else used, "….I just wanted to talk."

The woman looked up from behind her desk and smiled affectionately, "About what?"

"Nothing really." Chrono hedged as he took a seat among the bonsai pots, looking around with a sweat drop. No matter how many times he entered her quarters, he never really got used to the bizarre dissonance. His mother's room was divided into three parts, the sleeping quarters which included her own bathroom, the reception area which looked as if it had been taken right out of a traditional Japanese home and a work area which looked far more modernized, "What are you looking at?"

The soft spoken Admiral moved from her desk to the tea table and began pouring out a cup of tea for the both of them, "Mostly old records… and the documents for me to adopt Fate-chan. Is this about her?"

Chrono tilted his head as he shifted the heavy black spiky armour, thanking the Kaisers that his mother had given him the opening he needed, "Sort off I guess. What do you think Tou-san would have said about something like that?"

"Eh... ah…" The green haired woman turned the question over in her head for a moment, "He'd approve I guess. He was a kind man that wouldn't have wanted anyone to suffer."

"That's a pretty generic opinion…." Chrono muttered under his breath, "But why Fate-san? Adopting her just because we're the few adults physically closest to her, you can basically call that self-satisfaction rather than truly not wanting for anyone to suffer isn't it?" Seeing his mother's questioning look, the raven haired boy hurriedly tried to explain himself, "I mean, if that truly was the reason, then why not adopt every orphan in the world?"

The moment Lindy smiled sadly, Chrono knew that she at the very least already suspected that he was hiding something, "You knew that Tou-san was from Earth right?"

Chrono averted his eyes sheepishly and glanced at the bonsai decorated rooms, "Yeah…"

His mother gently stirred a sugar cube into her tea, "Did you know that the first time he asked me out, rather than bring me roses or flowers, he gave me a bonsai plant," Lindy chuckled as she fondly brushed one finger over the largest pot in her room, "He never looked more stupid, standing outside the dorms waiting for me with a potted plant in his hands, this very bonsai in fact. But at the same time, I had never felt more touched either."

"I suppose that doesn't really answer your question at all." The green haired woman smiled faintly at her son who had only known his father for less than a year, "…but he always said that as one of only two Earthborn Mages to join the TSAB, he was given magic for a reason... He was fully aware that having magic didn't make him God, but even if it was one life, if his magic let him save one more life, even if it didn't make a real difference, he was doing what his part as a TSAB Mage and as a person. Ultimately, even if it was one just one tiny life," Lindy smiled beatifically, "It was enough to give meaning to his pride as a Mage."

She peacefully sipped from her cup, "Did that answer your question?"

Chrono nodded silently, "Thanks… kaa-san."

Lindy's lips quirked in a half smile, "It's almost time for dinner. We should eat with our family."

Her subdued son nodded mutely and stood up along with her.

"That's right. It's almost time to visit him again." Lindy demurely touched her cheek in consternation, "I have a lot to say to him…. So much has happened in so little time, like Fate-chan and Naruto-kun joining our family…."

"Yeah…"

"…And Chrono growing up to be just as perverted as him…"

"Please don't. I'm seriously begging you here."

Giggling lightly, Lindy gently pushed her son out of the door where they found a familiar whiskered boy on his way back from the simulation rooms, "Naruto-kun?" the woman echoed disbelievingly, "What happened to you?!"

"Hummm?" blue eyes looked up at her as he wiped his hands on a rag, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that both of them were mangled beyond belief, "Oh this? I went a little too far. Don't worry about it. I tried not to drip." The blonde said dismissively.

Both of them instantly stopped him from meandering through the hallways, "What do you mean it's nothing?!" Chrono demanded as he inspected the wounds, "They look like…." He squinted at the flesh wound that looked as if something had tried to tunnel their way out from inside his hand itself. The flesh around the exit wounds was glowing faintly and he could already see the wounds regenerating, but clearly struggling to keep up with the amount of damage, "Oh Kaiser…. What in the**…. How can you be so calm**?!"

As Chrono began weaving spell after healing spell onto his hands, Lindy grabbed the boy's cheeks, ignoring his vaguely grumpy expression, "What happened?" she asked sternly.

"I was training. I got a little impatient and sort of pushed a little too hard, my hand went **pop** like a balloon. You really don't have to worry about me." The irritated blonde answered shortly as he pulled his hands away and began wiping them on the blood soaked rag again, revealing perfectly serviceable if scarred pink digits, "See?"

Brushing off their concerned looks, the blonde began to meander through the halls again with a thoughtful expression.

Lindy sighed to herself, "Where did I go wrong? Chrono-kun likes Ero games and big breasts and Naruto-kun is a masochist….. only Fate-chan seems remotely normal and even she has a few quirks….."

"….."

Chrono couldn't even argue because, frankly? He agreed with her.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Naruto stopped walking just as he entered the hall and cocked his head, "Huh? Why do I feel like I'm seriously being misunderstood here?"

"What are you talking about, Naruto-kun?" the girl on the sofa asked him softly.

The blonde scratched the itch on his palm with a distant expression, dead skin flaking off, "Hmm? No. Just some strange feeling." The blonde dropped onto the sofa beside Fate as her phone beeped with another message, "How was dinner with Pigtails?"

"It was good…." Mentally, she wondered if it would be appropriate to invite the standoffish blonde boy to tomorrow's meeting, "Uhm… We were planning on going to visit Suzuki-san's friend in the hospital…. Do you want to come?"

"Eeeh… can I pass? I'm seriously thinking of something new here. It's on the very tips of my finger…. Just a little bit more."

"It's Christmas Eve and you've been stuck at home for a while now." Fate frowned at the bored blonde as he refused to budge from his seat on the sofa. The frown turned into a small pout, "That's it. You absolutely refused to go along the last time, so you have no other option this time. This an order."

"Did I ever tell you that you're really pushy?"

"Several times." The blonde girl noted with a small satisfied smile.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Hayate-chan! It's a little early but Merry Christmas!"

The frail looking girl's cheeks flushed in happiness, "Arisa-chan, Suzuki-chan! Thanks doing this for me."

"Nonsense." The red haired girl retorted bossily as Fate demurely entered behind her, "We're a friend, that's all that matters."

"It's good to see you again, Yagami-san." Fate bowed politely as her more boisterous friends crowded into the room, before stopping in surprise at the sight of several familiar faces.

"Testarossa-san?" Signum muttered breathlessly while Vita growled viciously at the very sight of a paling Nanoha.

Unaware of the hostile byplay, the bed ridden girl smiled kindly even as she stroked Vita's hair, "Ah, Fate-chan, it's good see you too. Come in, come in."

Fate was about to hesitantly oblige when a bored looking face popped out from behind Fate, "That accent was sexy."

"..."

"What?" Naruto cocked his head with a confused expression at everyone's stares, "I was just thinking that this might not be such a wast-"

The tense atmosphere instantly disappeared as everyone worked together for the **Greater Good**.

Which is to say Fate stepped on his foot as Signum bashed her elbow into his head while Nanoha elbowed his gut.

Shamal tried very hard to hold onto a growling Zafira as she made a mental note to never let the blonde and Hayate to stay in the same room, ever, while a grinning Hayate did the same for Vita.

"This is Naruto Harlaown, Fate's idiot brother. Please ignore him. He's prone to moments to extreme stupidity whenever he hasn't been fed." Nanoha calmly said as she stepped over the steaming pile of Naruto drooling into the ground.

"What am I?! Your pet!?"

"Oh I don't mind, he's pretty cute too." Hayate teased the bruised blonde that simply gave her a cheerful if weak wave from his spot on the floor, "Especially the whiskers. Makes me want to pet him."

"No seriously. I'm not a pet….."

"It's alright, I'm sure you'll get along very well with Zafira, I even have matching outfits!"

"I want to be angry but that accent is unbearably adorable."

Hayate laughed delicately into her hand, "Fate-chan I didn't know your brother was such a sweet talker, you should have brought him here earlier, huhuhu."

The blonde girl in question could only smile wordlessly as Nanoha gave a disturbed glance at the brunette and the blonde who happened to be getting along surprisingly well, "Note to self. Never let these two stay in the same room for prolonged periods of time." She muttered to herself.

"Agreed." Signum bit out through gritted teeth as she picked Naruto up by the scruff of his neck, "Shamal, Vita," She coolly sent them a warning look as she stepped out of the door, "Please entertain our guests. I'm going to be getting some drinks for everyone while the gentleman here helps me."

A concerned Nanoha and Fate were about to hurry to Naruto's assistance when a sweetly smiling Shamal blocked their way.

The two of them shared a worried glance.

Outside in a desolate corridor, Signum placed a sheathed Laevantein to the unconcerned blonde's neck, "How did you find us?" The rose haired woman demanded with a sharp gaze, "Shamal put up her strongest barriers. Nothing can find us if she doesn't want it to; not even star ship scanners or S rank scrying spells."

"Have you tried determined nine year girls?" Naruto deadpanned as he gently removed the sword at his neck with one finger, "So that's her huh?"

Naruto looked vaguely pained, "Shame, looks like we really could have been friends."

"You're not making a very convincing argument here. If anything, I should keep a pervert like you away from her on principle." Signum retorted coldly, referring to their earlier conversation in the dojo.

The blonde shrugged as he began walking down the hall.

"Where are you going?" the rose haired woman questioned with wary, narrowed eyes.

"To get drinks, remember?" the blonde dryly called back.

Signum sighed, and her shoulders slumped a little, feeling more than a little foolish for taking things seriously when the blonde seemed so completely relaxed and unconcerned.

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt the tense woman follow him down a series of near empty corridors, the sounds of their footsteps echoing in the desolate corridors.

"You can stop trying to stall in order to make contact with Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san. Shamal is our best support caster. Putting up a communications jamming barrier in short range is no problem at all." Signum called out as she realized that the blonde had led the two of them into the hospital's parking lot instead of the cafeteria.

"Determined nine year olds ring any bells?" The blonde observed blandly, "Should I assume that you're already currently in communication with your team? I can already sense Fate and Nanoha already leaving the hospital. Your team is following them. Are you planning on ending this now?"

"Feel free to guess all you like." A deep purple fire enveloped the sharp eyed woman.

Naruto cricked his neck as the tension came to a head, "Ah….. This sucks. I really should have stayed home.

******Caliburn Initiative*******

Incidentally, almost every song that is recommended in our work is done so by Kishi.

Kur0 = painfully tone deaf.


	7. Seventh Step: I am Not Happy

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 7**

**Seventh Step: I am Not Happy.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

When writing a crossover that contains two awesome protagonists, the main problem comes from balancing the story enough to stay true to BOTH of them and still show off WHY they were awesome in the first place and we tend to favour one over the other. Sighs….

**Soundtrack List **

Three Days Grace – Animal I've Become

T.M Revolution - Ignited

Flow – Go!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Libera Me From Hell

Shiro Sagisu – Stand Up Be Strong

******Caliburn Initiative******

"_I'm sorry for placing this burden on you, Naruto… no, I should be calling you the Rokudaime-sama now shouldn't I?" the blonde woman smiled weakly, "It's a little ironic isn't it." _

_The blonde who had his head bowed leaked a few more tears, "Do-Don't say anymore baa-chan. You're still the Godaime, I won't take the chair from you just because of a little wound like that." _

"_Kakashi, this is my last order to you as your Hokage," Tsunade ordered through ragged breaths, "Take care of Naruto. He's a little unpolished and he doesn't even know how to be diplomatic but he'll be a good Leader. Just make sure he doesn't accidentally cause a war by being rude in a meeting." _

_Behind Naruto, The man in ragged shinobi armour bowed his head, "I will do my best, Tsunade-sama." He placed one hand on the crying blonde's shoulder, "Naruto, let's go. There's something we have to finish." _

"_I won't! I want to stay!" Naruto protested as he wrenched his shoulder out of the one eyed man's hand._

"_Naruto!" Kakashi chided him softly, "The front lines won't last any longer without a leader. Konoha is already gone and you're Tsunade-sama's successor. She would want you to finish this fight in her place." _

"_How would you know what she wants?! Is that what being an adult means? That kind of common sense?" Naruto stood up, burning with a red aura that repelled Kakashi, "I'm not an adult. I'm a ….!" _

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Three Days Grace – Animal I've Become**

"Admiral Gil?" a young boy dressed entirely in black robes called out in a steady tone as he walked through the dark and empty mansion. His gut instincts were practically screaming at him that something was wrong but he still forged his way through the familiar corridors until he came to the deepest part of the mansion, one that he had never been allowed to step foot into for as long as he had stayed here during his training.

Swallowing his nervousness, Chrono set his jaw and pushed open the door to see a wide room. The only source of light came from the massive set of screens that decorated one entire section of the wall. Silhouetted by the soft light coming from the screens was a single figure, standing there with his back straight and proud, "Chrono, I'm glad you came."

Chrono's eyes widened as he stared at the screens, "You've already started?!"

"Was I wrong?"

"Of course you're wrong!" Chrono took a step forward angrily, "You promised that you would not move until I gave you my answer!"

"I already knew your answer. You're simply too innocent Chrono." The man hidden by the shadows replied softly, "You weren't there during the Hestia's fall. I couldn't take the risk of you interfering before my plans bore fruit. In the end, you would not have been willing to sacrifice even one person."

CHrono ripped out the card from inside his robe; the card emitted a soft blue glow before reforming into his mage staff, "Why won't you just listen? If we pooled our resources and information together, something this extreme would not be necessary!"

"It's alright, no matter how this ends, I'll take full responsibility." The Admiral refuted gently.

"That's not enough, you're just doing this for your own self-satisfaction!" Chrono took another step forward and gasped as a magical array formed underneath his feet, binding him to the spot as he frantically tried to decipher the array in order to break it, "What? Bind?"

"Nothing that simple, I'm afraid." Graham snorted, "I've heard that you improved but ultimately, your basics came from the Liese twins, and I was the one who taught _them_. It's only natural that I stopped them from teaching you _everything._"

The silence in the room dragged on for a few moments as Chrono's struggles gradually ceased.

The man stood up heavily, and ran one hand through his graying hair as he spoke to the two masked man displayed on the communication screen, "It is unavoidable but even if I said that, Chrono is a strong Mage. I cannot keep him contained for too long. We'll have to speed up our plans. The two of you," The Admiral motioned towards his two familiars, "Please make sure that the Book is properly filled. Drain whoever you need. We finish this tonight. After that, I can finally rest…." He turned around, "Chrono, are you listening?"

The Enforcer answered in a mechanical tone, "Yes."

"Good. Take me to the Arthra."

"Yes, sir."

*******Caliburn Initiative*******

Nanoha drew a deep breath and let it out with a powerful gust, feeling more energized as she took in the clear fresh air.

"It's cloudy. Looks like it's going to rain doesn't it?" the soft spoken girl beside her commented as she tried to keep her long yellow hair from interfering with her gaze.

The auburn haired girl smiled thinly as she looked around her, one hand reaching out to grasp Fate's tiny hand. The two of them were waiting atop one of the tallest skyscraper in Uminari City as the wind howled around them.

"Did you manage to get in touch with the Arthra?"

Fate shook her head slowly, "Something seems to be wrong."

Several dots appeared in the sky above them and Nanoha's smile turned grim, "I don't like rain. I wonder where that idiot is?"

"The last thing I heard from him was that he was cornered by Signum-san." Fate sighed, not even needing her best friend to clarify which idiot she was talking about, "Personally, I would've like to see him lock their joints and force them to **bow down** so that all they can do is listen to us quietly, fufufu…"

Nanoha made a complicated expression at the blonde girl's disturbingly gentle giggle, "I'm not letting you spend any more time with that idiot than strictly necessary."

Before Fate could formulate an argument, two girls were forced to leap apart as a massive hammer landed in between them with a huge burst, shattering the cement easily.

Nanoha landed on one knee as she faced off with Vita, out of the very edges of her peripheral vision she could see Shamal and Zafira circling around a focused Fate. The girl's lips had thinned into a severe line, all hints of smiles gone from her face as she deflected Zafira's claws with Bardiche. Her violet gaze turned back to the Iron Knight who had tears running down her cheeks despite the fierce expression.

Letting out another breath, Nanoha deliberately lowered her arms much to the smaller girl's confusion though Vita refused to lower her guard, if anything, she gripped her polo hammer even harder, "What are you doing?"

"I just want us to understand each other without having to fight. Can't you see that? We can help you if you just tell us what's in your hearts!"

"There's nothing to understand anymore," Vita gritted her teeth, "If only you didn't come here today, if only you didn't interfere." Hot tears ran down her cheeks as she burst forth with a roar, "**This is all because of you, so there's nothing to understand!**"

Nanoha screamed as she held up her hands to defend herself from the hammer blow that sent her flying into the chain link fence that enclosed the rooftop shortly before several red balls exploded on the ground all around her, engulfing the nine year old girl in a sea of fire.

"If it wasn't for you…." Vita mumbled to herself as a hazy silhouette appeared in the hot fire. Nanoha Takamachi slowly walked out of the fire, already equipped with her Barrier Jacket and Raising Heart, "If only it wasn't because of you… you devil."

"I'm fine with being a demon…." Nanoha kept her sad gaze on the crying girl as her heart tore with sympathy, "I'll just have to use my hellish tools to make you listen."

*******Caliburn Initiative*******

Signum roared as she brought down a flaming sword on the nine year old child who only defended with a pair of crossed kunais. The blue eyed woman smiled victoriously as Levantein cut through them with supreme ease, the force of her strike sending the blonde flying backwards until he hit a wall with a loud crack. The only reason he had not been bisected was because he had managed to leap backwards just in time to lessen the damage.

Panting, Naruto slid down the wall and threw away the warped and melted kunais with a distasteful look, "Those were my last few ones." He grunted quietly, "You owe me; I don't even think there's anyone that can make those anymore."

"I owe you nothing." The Belkan Knight replied coolly as she darted at him again, sword held high in a threatening manner. Silently, the small ninja slid out of her range and began running down an alley. Signum's brow rose angrily as the little blonde kept fighting a defensive battle, leading her further and further away from the hospital, "Stand and fight!"

"I may look nine, but I'm not stupid." The fleeing blonde countered softly as he ducked into an empty warehouse.

A few seconds later, Signum burst through the large double doors looking like she was about to start snorting flames as she waved a flaming Levantein about in the darkness.

Just as her eyes were about to adjust to the dimness, a blonde boy shot out of the darkness, followed by at least three more that moved to flank her. Despite her surprise at the sudden additions, the woman slashed her Device at the three of them without missing a beat, sending a wave of fire that instantly engulfed all three of them, "Got you!"

"Got who?" a voice remarked from behind her. Without even looking, Signum reacted with lethal force, sending out a spurt of solid fire that speared the boy who was about to assault her back with a blue orb and sending him crashing into a wall. She snorted at the bleeding youth, "How old do you think I am? You're not the only one that can use sneak attacks, boy."

"So you admit that you're an old hag?" Someone else asked cheerfully from her side.

"I don't know what magic you are using, but your clones will not work against me." Signum thundered as she dispatched the clone with ease as wave upon wave of clones began to flood out of the darkness like a bad horror movie, "Come out and fight properly!"

Waving Levantein around like a make shift flamethrower, Signum was completely unaware of the original hidden amongst the clones. Blue eyes dilated as Naruto dove through a blast of fire, fist first, ignoring the smell of his flesh burning, "Wish granted."

Caught off guard, Signum's eyes widened as she took the blow with her sword before reversing the force of the blow back onto the small child, only for him to simply go with the flow into back handed blow that was stopped by her pauldron while her knee shot upwards in an attempt to break his jaw.

As the blonde boy was blasted backwards a doppelganger replaced him by sliding through his feet and shot upwards, his foot nearly clipping her chin as another one simply punched the clone right in the stomach. Slapping the clone away like it was a fly, Signum flashed forward and used the second clone like a spring board to boost herself until she was nearly parallel with the stunned original, "Shiden Issen!"

Naruto screamed as the burning sword bit into his flesh, carving a line from his shoulder to his hip, and sent him rocketing into the very back of the warehouse. As Signum landed gently, she gazed around the dark warehouse with sharp eyes as the blonde's presence disappeared only to be replaced by more clones to keep her occupied, presumably to lick his wounds for the moment.

Grunting, the rose haired woman set about slaughtering the poor clones with an unmatched ferocity when she felt Naruto's presence re-emerge. Reacting almost instinctively, she swung the whip sword in the direction of his presence, only for the blonde to simply catch it with one hand and wrap the flaming blade whip around one arm. Just as Signum was about to counter it, she twitched, the momentary distraction allowed Naruto to pull Signum towards him.

Jerked off her feet, the much older woman simply smirked as she used the motion to her advantage and sent an axe kick down on the blonde.

**Play T.M. Revolution - Ignited**

An armoured boot slammed into the blonde's skull without any effect save the cracking of the tiles beneath his feet.

Naruto grinned maliciously.

Just as a fist hammered into her gut, Signum belatedly realized that the blonde's eyes had turned somewhat frog like, complete with orange mascara surrounding them even as he completely ignored the flames of the whip sword wrapped around his arm despite his sleeve burning away.

Feeling as if Vita had just used her as target practice, Signum fell to her knees as her guts protested, "Ho-How are you doing that?!"

"With ease." The blonde answered shortly as he hammered his free fist into her body again and again, "In this form, my defence, strength, range and speed are all quadrupled. Simple brute force won't do anything to me anymore."

"**Shwertform!" **as the whip chains forcefully unwound themselves from the blonde's arm with a loud rasping sound, scratching him badly in the process, and reformed into a sword, Signum deflected the last blow with her sword and managed to score a cut on the blonde's cheek just before another punch blew through her guard, the force of it sending her flying as explosions began to light up all around the warehouse.

"You can lead a horse to water, but if you can't force him to drink then DROWN him!"

Signum hit the ground just in time to realize that the impertinent blonde was doing.

"That's not how that phrase is supposed to be used!" She managed to yell out just before blonde dropped the entire building on her.

Outside the massive mountain of rubble, a small figure coughed as it brushed the dust off his ruined shirt, "I wonder if that'll slow her down… Crazy woman just keeps coming for more." He muttered to himself as he gingerly poked the deep wound running from his shoulder to hip.

"**Now you know how annoying it is to fight YOU."** His little friend commented snidely.

"Well... It's not like I could've chucked a Rasen Shuriken in her direction. I just want to slow her down, not cripple her." The blonde shot back.

"**I don't think you've got much of a choice."** The titanic fox commented slyly as the mountain of rubble began rumbling.

Naruto barely had time to widen his eyes side step a lethal blow when a decidedly unhappy Signum exploded out of the rubble with a solid lance made of flame, "Keep dreaming."

"That's interesting." The blonde commented in a somewhat detached manner through a bloody smile as he felt his shoulder cooking from the inside, "I smell like fried chicken."

"Not as interesting as the fact that all your bones have yet to be completely turned into jelly," Signum observed coldly as the two of them locked gazes, "You have the dubitable honour of being the first person to survive a point blank range_ Karyuu Issen _even without a shield."

"Yeah…." Naruto drawled with a grimace as the blade made of pure crimson fire dug deeper into his shoulder, "I get that a lot. I seem to have this rather bad habit of surviving things I'm not meant to that is. Incidentally, would you mind removing that? I kinda need that arm."

"I'll pass, please die soon so that I can go and help my friends."

"Yeaaah…. About that." The nine year old who was currently being pinned to a wall through his shoulder glanced at the rose haired woman who had her body up against him, "Not that this isn't comfortable but I think Pigtails and Fate kinda need my help and by association, my arm."

"That's exactly why I'm telling you die. I need to go and help my comrades as soon as possible, and I'd really prefer if you didn't interfere."

"Interfere? Are you deaf as well as stupid? All this time, the two of them have been sincerely trying to help you. Even if they don't have the authority, I'd imagine that the TSAB has the technology necessary to help heal Hayate-chan that Earth without resorting to draining Cores!"

"Are _you _stupid?" Signum growled deeply, "You yourself know that they don't have the authority to promise us anything, do you really expect the authorities to simply listen to rookie Mages? With the stigma associated with the Book of Darkness, they would have locked Hayate-sama up, shunted her, or even treat her like a simple object to be experimented on! You may be willing to gamble on them doing the right thing, but I for one am not."

"Do you really? You've mentioned that every past Master you've had has treated you like a tool, but now that have a Master that cares for you, you go all out trying to save her that you didn't even bother about how she will feel after everything is said and done because of a misunderstanding?"

"Don't you say a word about her!" Naruto hissed as the angry woman pushed the lance deeper into his body, "That lonely girl who tries so hard to keep us happy, that clumsy girl who was unable to make any friends! Every day she dresses us up in something embarrassing, but we understand that she just enjoys designing clothes, because that's all she can do! So don't you dare talk like you understand!"

A fist enveloped in flames blitzed past her, leaving a tiny burn on her cheek as it smashed into the white mask of the man that had been trying to sneak up on her.

"I understand. I understand very well. That's why **we **want to share that burden with you." A steely voice muttered in her ear, "And if they really try to do something like that, I can guarantee that you'll have at least one extremely hard to kill person on your side."

Signum leapt back and spun around abruptly, pretending to inspect the unconscious man while hiding her red cheeks, "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

The blonde slid down from the wall, leaving a bloody trail as he let out a simple sigh of relief and worked his left shoulder where the rose haired woman had stabbed him to see if there was any lasting damage. Satisfied that it would still work, the blonde got up with a wince, "We should hurry, I don't think I hit him hard enough to keep him down for long."

Signum who still had her back to him seemed to nod, "If he's here looking for me, then something must have happened to Shamal and the others."

"No rest for the weary." The blonde mumbled a phrase he had read somewhere before standing up again, '_How long do you think healing this will take?' _

"**I don't know. It depends. The way it is right now with your insides almost entirely roasted, it'd probably be faster if you just cut it off your entire arm and grow a new one."** Kurama noted nonchalantly.

"_Yeah…. I kinda want to avoid the cutting of limbs thing for now. The whole lizard aspect kinda turns me off. Just do what you can for now."_ He turned away from his internal conversation, "Let's go. We need to hurry if things are as bad as you say."

"You can stay here." Signum coolly argued back with dismissive tone, "You're no good with your shoulder like that."

The boy deliberately shrugged again to emphasize that he was fine and grunted, "I'd rather feel pain than being stuck in a black empty void with nothing at all. Pain means I'm still alive, it means I can still get up and try again." Even as he spoke, steam began rising from his wound as the flesh seemed to bubble and regenerate at an inhuman rate. The blonde crouched down and jumped onto a ledge, "If you don't hurry, I'm going to leave you behind."

"What sort of insane pain threshold do you have?" Signum asked with an incredulous look at the nimble blonde.

"The kind that makes gods want to go home and cry to their mommies." The blonde retorted candidly, "Actually I think cutting off my head would do the job, I haven't really tried on account of not liking being dead and all."

Growling, Signum finally turned around and began to chase after the boy when she noticed his charred fist, "What's wrong with your hand?" she called out above the rush of the wind.

"Hmmm?" The blonde glanced at the fist and shrugged carelessly in reply, "Let's just say testing new techniques in the middle of battle isn't a good idea. Then again, I'm a shinobi, I don't stop training even if I'm stuck in another world, battle or not."

******Caliburn Initiative******

Hiding behind the corner, a tuft of yellow hair appeared as the shinobi tried to use his peripherals in order to see for himself what was going on discreetly when someone grabbed him from behind to stop him from being noticed by the two impersonators, "What are you doing idiot? Don't make it so obvious." Signum's voice hissed from somewhere above him.

"Where am I? And why am I thinking of Jiraiya-sensei all of a sudden?" Naruto remarked to himself in a muffled tone.

Cornflower blue eyes quirked in exasperation at the nine year old's strange comment at a time like this as she removed him from her chest, "Whose Jiraiya?"

"Never mind." He turned around and gently smacked his face on the wall, _'__**Uwoooh**__! Thank you Kami for making me 4 Feet tall!'_

"Stop moving around." Signum hissed from somewhere above him, "They'll notice us."

"Alright, alright…. What are they doing anyway?" the blonde mumbled as he gingerly poked at the bump on his forehead.

"I'm not sure…. It looks like that one of those masked men has captured them." Naruto nodded as he remembered that they had left the second half of the weird masked men snoring under some rubble, "But he's just standing there as if he's waiting for something."

"I don't see Zafira or Shamal though…. I thought they would be here." Naruto muttered lowly when he felt something wet land on his cheek.

Patting his cheek, he glanced at the drop of liquid and his eyes widened, "Blood? What the?" The short boy immediately peered upwards only to realize that Signum was had been forcing herself to stay still by biting her lip to the point where she was bleeding, "They've already been defeated. Before we came here, Shamal sent me a message, right before their Cores were absorbed into the Book of Darkness."

"That's why you twitched earlier." The blonde remarked softly.

Signum merely nodded silently.

"We have to stop them before they do the same to Vita."

Signum's callous fingers clamped down on his bicep like an iron vice, to the point where he could feel her nails drawing blood, sheer anger thrummed in her words, "**Do not belittle their sacrifice**. We have the upper hand here and we should not waste it."

"They were your friends!" the blonde hissed angrily.

"Are you a shinobi or not? Are you a warrior of the shadows or was that simply the delusion of an impatient child?" Seeing the chastised boy hesitate, Signum continued forcefully, "Then be silent and bid your time. They can be saved easily as long as Hayate has access to the Book of Darkness."

Naruto clenched his fists so hard he could feel his pulse under his nails as the two of them watched the masked man pace around the roof top with Vita, Nanoha and Fate bound in bluish, transparent chains connected to the insides of a crystal like cage.

"Shhh…" Signum hushed him, "Their talking."

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Bardiche?" Fate asked quietly so as to not alert the pacing man to what they were doing.

"**Not yet, sir." **

The blonde girl gently nudged Nanoha and shook her head minutely. The pigtailed girl nodded to signal that she had understood, they needed to buy some time for Bardiche to complete working on releasing the three of them. The nine year old girl coughed politely, "Ano…. Kamen-san?"

The man who had been pacing around on the roof for the past few minutes looked up, "What is it?"

Undeterred by the curt tone, Nanoha tried not let the anger she felt at the man that had basically attacked them from the back when they were all tired before absorbing Shamal and Zafira's Cores without any mercy show in her voice, "Why are you doing this? You seemed to help them collect Cores, but now you turn on Vita-chan and her friends, whose side are you really on?"

The blue haired man seemed to chuckle lowly, "I'm on our own side."

"What…. Does your side want?" Fate inquired softly with a tilt of her head.

"Nggh…." The unknown man scratched his hair in frustration, "It's not really hard. We wanted the Book of Darkness to activate, that's all. Of course, our end goals are completely different from you and Vita-san so we had to take them out before they could object." The man shrugged carelessly seeing no harm in just laying everything out, "The Wolkenritter are hoping that there is a cure for Hayate-chan somewhere in the book, the two of you just don't want it to go berserk in the process and we…. Well we want to seal it."

Nanoha frowned, "If you've thought that far ahead, then you understand what it means for the Tome of the Night Sky to activate don't you?"

Vita blinked slowly, Tome of the Night Sky? The name seemed to bring something niggling at the back of her head, but she couldn't quite reach it, "Wait? Seal it?!"

"Of course. It was really hard to keep both groups at each other throats." The man seemed to speak in a modest manner with regards to his success, "If Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan had succeeded in persuading Signum and Vita to seek help from TSAB, it's slight, but there would have been a slight possibility that their cooperation would have rendered our plans moot and the Book of Darkness would have gotten off scot free despite its crimes. By keeping all of you fighting while ensuring the Book of Darkness activates, the TSAB would have no other option other than to agree that what we did was right."

The red haired girl felt dread enter her small chest, "Hayate and the Book of Darkness will be inseparable once it activates, you plan on sealing her as well?!"

The man seemed to hesitate, "We don't want to hurt anyone if at all possible, but our method will only be effective once the Book of Darkness activates, and before it fully awakens. Trapped in stasis, the TSAB will be able to research for a more permanent way to deal with the Book of Darkness."

Vita began to shake in her binds as she realized how stupid everyone had been, foolishly running around when Nanoha just wanted to help.

"I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!" The man in the white uniform seemed to chuckle again at the sight of the Iron Knight furiously struggling against her binds, a chuckle that stopped the moment he realized that her chains had begun to crack loudly under the Iron Knight's strength, "There's no time for this. I can't wait anymore."

Waving his hands in an intricate pattern, a teleportation array appeared and with it, a very puzzled and confused looking Hayate.

"Hayate-chan!" Nanoha called desperately as the bonds cracked even louder.

The blonde girl bit her lip as she began struggling against her bonds as well, "Just a… little bit more."

A familiar beam of light shone on them from the Book of Darkness and Vita's eyes widened incredulously, "Wa-wait! You can't! Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan have already been absorbed before! If you do it again so soon, their Cores will fracture permanen..Kurk!" the terrible feeling of something being dragged out of her, bit by bit caused the small Knight to dry heave uselessly while Hayate watched on through horror struck eyes, "Wa-wait!"

Throwing every bit of her remaining strength into her limbs, the small Knight shouldered both Nanoha and Fate out of the way, taking all three beams on her own.

"AAAARGGHG!"

Fate and Nanoha couldn't shut their eyes despite the horrible scream as the two of them scrambled to Vita's side. The fading Knight who had been so utterly drained could only smile weakly, "So…rry…. Sho…ld…. listened…."

"Wa-wait, you can't! **VITA**!" Fate cried silently as Nanoha let out a heartrending scream for the lost Knight.

On the ground, the masked man grunted as he flipped through the pages, "Not good. It's still not filled." Setting her resolve, Liese began to reinitiate the absorption process again, causing both of the small girls to collapse weakly as they felt their Cores being dragged out until something blocked it again.

"Naruto?" Fate weakly breathed.

"Sorry Signum, shinobi or not, I can't just stand and watch." The blonde boy muttered flatly as a golden orange orb was ripped out of his chest and absorbed into the book.

It's brown leather began to glow with an unearthly aura as all 666 pages were instantly filled with the blonde boy's remaining energy before shortly exploding into the sky, taking a screaming and sobbing Hayate with it.

Another figure darted out of the shadows, cursing as a whip made of fire lashed against their weakened bonds, shattering them with ease before turning her attention on the masked man. Flames seemed to flare from every pore of the last remaining Wolkenritter, "**You will pay for this**."

No doubt paling underneath the mask, the man abruptly broke free of his shock before jumping off the top of the sky scraper.

Signum made to follow when she felt a hand clamp down on her, "We have bigger things to deal with." The short blonde girl said woodenly.

The rose haired woman hesitated for the briefest of moments to glance at the bleeding and deathly pale Naruto, "Take care of him. I'll meet you there….." The Belkan Knight hesitated before squeezing the hand gently, "I'm sorry… for everything."

There was no doubt in any of their minds where _there _referred to as they gazed at the thick black clouds obscuring every inch of the clear night sky. A funnel seemed to slowly stretch down from the ominous gathering of black clouds and touch down in the middle of the city, a presence so massive that no one could fail to notice it hidden amongst the vapour.

"I'll cast the displacement barrier. Nanoha-chan and I will join you as soon as we can."

Signum chose to ignore the mechanical tone and nodded before taking into the sky without another word, with a nearly palpable frustration etched on her expression.

Two girls crowded around the blue faced blonde worriedly, "Naruto? Naruto! Are you alright?"

The blonde boy nodded weakly.

"Nanoha," Fate urgently laid on hand on her friend's shoulder even as she stole uncertain glances between the direction in which the two men had left and the extremely pale Naruto, "We have to get him to the Arthra."

The auburn haired girl seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding determinedly, "Arthra, come in. Can you hear me?"

All she received in reply was static. Left with a pale and depleted Naruto with no backup in sight, the two young girls stared at each other uncertainly, "What do we do now? Nanoha questioned worriedly.

Fate took only a split second to make her decision, "Bardiche, cast a shield around Naruto and keep it there until we can get some support. The Tome of the Night Sky comes first and we can't let Signum fight alone."

**[Certainly, sir.]**

"No!" Naruto choked out as a yellow dome materialized around him, desperately struggling against the gaping sense of emptiness in his chest to get up, "I-I can help!"

Fate laid a soft hand on his forehead and smiled warmly, "You were just drained Naruto," The blonde girl soothed him gently, "And you can't fly yet. We'll be fine, just rest here until some help arrives."

As the two girls left the blonde on that desolate rooftop, Naruto finally seemed to surrender as he fell on his back.

"So I'm here again huh…. Stay back where it's safe while we handle it. Stay here like a good boy. Stay here like a good Hokage. A good commander stays back to order his troops. A Hokage is only good because of his vision that encompasses Konoha….." the blonde seemed to speak to himself.

Veins bulged noticeably under his skin as the prone blonde began projecting a blood red aura.

"**Your brain may remember how to channel my energy, but your body can't. At this point, with all the damage you've already suffered, going into that mode while your body is nine years old WILL, not maybe, not probably, WILL be suicide because the strain will instantly out damage the regeneration rate." **

Naruto hissed, fangs elongating, "I just need enough to move. I'm not asking for enough to fight another war."

The fox in his gut made a rather exasperated growl, fully aware that the blonde was simply being nice. Naruto was fully capable of forcibly drawing on his chakra, with or without his permission, **"Fine, on your own head be it."**

The yellow dome shattered with an explosion as a blonde burst out of the smoke, steam rising of the very surface of his skin. Without another word, the blonde agilely vaulted off the rooftop and began using the sky high buildings like simple trees.

"First things first. I need Caliburn."

******Unwavering Sky******

By the time the blonde managed to limp his way into the Harlaown household and collapse into the Arthra's transporter, his white shirt was now a grotesque mix of red, black and brown, "Chrono! Where are you?"

Eerie silence was all that answered the blonde as he limped through the darkened hallways, which was strange because the Arthra was never this dark. Amy hated the dark.

Just as the blonde was about to enter the command centre, a dark figure almost seemed to melt out of the darkness, "I'm here."

The monotone caused the unnerved Naruto to jump a few feet in the air as he cluthed at his heart with his one good hand, "Don't do that!" The blonde took a few seconds to calm down before frowning as the figure stayed hidden in the shadows, "What are you doing standing there? There's an emerge-"

Blue eyes widened incredulously as several blue arrows buried themselves deep in his torso, "Ch...rono?"

"I apologize." The figure lowered his staff, "You are not allowed to enter the command centre, "Please leave as soon as possible."

Naruto collapsed onto the ground as he felt the last of his strength leaving him, "Wha….t the hell…. Are you talking about? Nanoha and Fate are in danger!"

He punched the steel panels hard enough to dent them deeply as the blonde pulled himself upright with a grunt through sheer determination and lunged at Chrono.

A blast of blue light sent the battered blonde skidding back down the corridor as the figure stepped out of the darkness. Dull black eyes stared at him emotionlessly, "Proceeding with termination of intruder."

**Play FLOW – Go!**

"I knew you didn't like me," Naruto muttered to himself as he limped down the hall as fast as he could while avoiding blasts of ice and light, "But termination? I'm still a virgin for Kami's sake."

A crackling ball of light hit his shoulder, cracking his collarbone and sending the blonde spiralling through the open doors with a loud crash. Panting, Naruto closed his eyes, just a second. He hadn't felt this tired and pained in a long time while the sounds of Chrono's footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.

A wide grin stretched his face as clear blue eyes snapped open with resolve, "Pain is good."

Pulling himself up again, the blonde limped through another set of doors, leaving an obvious trail of blood as his body struggled to heal the several gaping holes in his torso, "Come to papa…." Naruto sang quietly to himself as he led Chrono through the Arthra until he felt someone kick his spine.

The blonde painfully crashed through a door into a room that he identified as Lindy's if the bonsai's were any indication mid roll and gasped as he felt himself land on his broken shoulder. Gasping raggedly, the blonde pulled himself into sitting position and hurriedly looked around for something to use as a weapon just as Chrono appeared in the doorway, staring down at him in an intimidating manner, the soulless black eyes certainly didn't help.

The blonde grinned helplessly, "Well. I've got nowhere left to run."

"Initiating termination."

Naruto smiled sweetly.

CHrono lunged at him

Naruto promptly slammed the door in Chrono's face.

The blonde wearily stood up as he leaned on the wall and grinned. Tapping the dent shaped like Chrono's face in the heavily reinforced door, he pulled it open with a wicked grin to see Chrono slumped face down on the floor, "I hope that hurt."

"Fuck you." Someone said in a muffled tone.

"Ah," Naruto smiled pleasantly, "I see that you've regained your senses."

"Was that really necessary?" Chrono grunted as he pulled himself up from the floor.

"Want to try it again just in case you still have a little something left in that empty skull of yours? Lindy probably won't mind if we break her door in two."

"I have no words powerful enough to convey the depth of my hate for you." The dark haired boy mumbled as he swayed unsteadily on his feet before lurching forwards.

He closed his eyes again and prepared for the inevitable when he felt some grasp his collar, "None of that now. We're a little busy at the moment and I can't afford you going around losing more brain cells on purpose."

"Hnn." Chrono grunted rudely as Naruto propped the woozy boy on his shoulders, "…..Thanks."

Naruto smirked, "Come again?"

"I said that Amy, Yuuno and Arf are being held in the cargo dock, we need to free them immediately." The dark haired boy replied dryly.

"Good. We can update each other on our pleasant day on our way there. I'm sure you have some interesting stories, what with the brainwashed act and all." Naruto said with mock enthusiasm as the two of them limped towards the cargo hold, "Incidentally, any idea where I can find Caliburn?"

Chrono gave the battered and bloody blonde a quizzical look, "It's in the cargo hold as well. But its final customizations haven't been finished yet. I'm fairly sure you're going to ignore me if I tell you not to use it but what do you plan on doing with it anyway?"

Naruto waved airily, "Save some pretty girls, take down a lost archive filled with spells of mass destruction, usual stuff."

"Righhttt…" Chrono drawled doubtfully, "You look like you're running on nothing but pure adrenaline as it is. You can't even stand up straight and you still want to go help?"

"Pure adrenaline and couple of shiny steel balls," Naruto corrected him glibly, "And yes. I plan to scre-I mean help."

"That would certainly explain the manic glint in your eyes. You're so high you don't even know what pain is anymore do you?"

"Nah, I'll be fine as long as my guts stay inside my- **Plop**."

"…" Chrono looked like he was suffering from severe constipation.

"So **that's **where my last kunai went…. By the way, you... uh… wouldn't happen to have any duct tape would you?"

******Caliburn Initiative******

Naruto's expression was priceless.

"…snrk. Well…. You did say you wanted orange…."

All things considered, the blonde boy sounded dangerously calm as he gestured as his new Barrier Jacket, "When I said orange, I didn't mean _'hey let's dunk him in a bucket of gold paint and slap some crimson on,' _orange. Is there some sort of Childian humour I'm not getting here?"

"Pft…. " Chrono desperately swallowed the bubbling laugh, "They must have misunderstood orange as _'I want to stick out like a sore thumb so everyone can take a pot shot at my ass.'_. You have to admit, there's not much difference."

"Might you be acquainted with the nut job that designed this?"

"Yes, but I'm not telling you."

"Why?"Naruto asked with a polite smile.

"Because you're going to kill her."

"Of course not. Shove a ten foot pole up somewhere uncomfortable? Maybe. Dig her eyeballs out and replace them with gold ping pongs? Definitely."

"That's why I'm not going to tell you."

"Is there a reason why I can't just get something simple like Pigtail's Barrier Jacket?"

"Snrk… Because it's fun-" Chrono stopped in the nick of time and forced on a straight face, "I mean… reprogramming it would take too long and we're sort of busy at the moment."

"Do you feel like another door to the face?" the blonde inquired sweetly.

"I'm begging you, please don't stand there. I keep typing in all the wrong keys because I want to laugh too badly. Go hide your face somewhere."

Naruto sighed, "Just… hurry up. You guys are too slow."

"I can't help it can I?" Chrono snapped tiredly, "It's not like repairing the entire system can be done with a snap of my fingers, not with Admiral Gil's fingers on the main controls."

"He does? Where's Lindy?" The blonde asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Their locked up in the command centre. I'm trying to manually revert some of the controls to this console so I can at least send the three of you down to Earth again before I go after that fat bastard."

Naruto sighed in resignation, "Whatever, try and catch up when you can."

"Catch up? What the hell are you talking about?"

**[BOOOM!]**

Chrono, Yuuno and Arf were jolted out of the feverish working and goggled at the clear display of the Arthra's cargo dock.

Or at least what _remained _of the cargo dock.

Naruto had blasted a hole in the Arthra's hull, and they could see a flapping speck of gold amongst the tornado of objects being sucked out into the void.

"Caliburn, did you ever get to do that atmosphere re-entry field test?" They heard the blonde asking in an amused tone over the static interference.

**[…..No?] **The A.I actually managed to sound rather apprehensive despite its limited emotion synthesizers.

"Think of it this way, at least you'll look awesome doing it."

**[Hell no.]**

"I can already tell we're going to be _wonderful _friends."

The blonde leapt out through the hole without any hesitation whatsoever.

"GAAAAAH! He's going to DIE!" while Chrono was busy having a nervous breakdown, Arf and Yuuno shared a look, "Ladies first?"

"Brave little ferret aren't you?"

******Caliburn Initiative******

The Belkan Knight fought with a stony expression, everything feeling somewhat surreal as her whip lashed at the white haired woman's near impenetrable shield. Maybe the manifestation was aware of her status as a summoned Knight, maybe she wasn't but the snow haired woman simply turned her dreamy eyes on Signum, tears running down her cheeks like rivers and completely ignored her as she systematically decimated parts of the town with her _'Thunder of the Night Sky'_. Her grip on Levantein tightened, unwilling to use anything more powerful on her creator of sorts, "Wake up, Book of Darkness! This isn't what you were meant to do!"

Why hadn't they known about the Book of Darkness going berserk like this? From the masked man's words, this happened every single time the Book of Darkness awakened, it wasn't possible for them to NOT notice. The only conclusion she could draw was that their memories were being edited somehow at the start of each cycle. The thought sent chills down her back as her assault on the unfazed woman slowed down with hesitation.

"_Bloody Dagger… Bring forth daggers and infuse them with blood."_ The softly spoken words reached her a fraction of a second too late, impounded by her lack of attention; this resulted in the Belkan Knight failing to react in time as she was surrounded by a ring of red floating daggers.

Aqua blue eyes widened as Signum wove her way through the revolving daggers almost on instinct but not before taking several heavy blows to her armour. Coming to an abrupt stop in mid-air, Signum sheathed Levantein before unsheathing it at extreme speeds, releasing a sharp burst of fire at the floating woman with two pairs of jet black wings attached to her back.

The manifestation of the Book of Darkness' will pointed at her with one imperial finger, "Diabolic Emission…. Merge with the land of Darkness."

Signum's breath hitched as the sky around her was instantly filled by a enlarging orb of sheer pulsing darkness, "_Panzergeist!"_ a rhombus shaped barrier formed around the pink armoured warrior just in time to clash with the enlarging orb. But even her shield began to fracture under the unyielding barrage.

"_Round Shield!"_ Signum watched almost breathlessly as the blades of lightning peppered the shield that Nanoha had erected around her just in time for her own Panzergeist to shatter.

"… Thank you…" The girl in the white Barrier Jacket nodded with a frown, "I won't be able to shield too many attacks like that."

A familiar blonde girl came to a stop with a flutter of her black cape as she hovered in the air beside the rose coloured Knight, "Why is she crying?"

"Looks like we get to find that out the hard way," Nanoha commented as the white haired woman raised both hands in their direction.

"My Mistress… I shall grant you your wish. My beloved Guardian Knights… I shall now destroy those that hurt you." The red eyed woman whispered as she tried to wipe away her unending tears, "Gefangnis de Magie."

"We're trapped in here again," Nanoha observed the familiar barrier that spread around her.

"What should we do?" Fate seemed wilted slightly, "I don't want to fight her. Not when she's crying like that."

Her best friend nodded, "Cover me, Fate-chan.'

"Roger."

Signum watched the two of them fearlessly fly out onto the battle field, trying to reason with the will of the Book of Darkness, "Hayate-chan… Tome of the Night Sky!"

Crimson red eyes slowly turned to gaze at the nine year old mage, "Please stop this!"

She simply lifted her hand in reply, "Bloody Dagger."

Fate clicked her tongue, _"Plasma Smasher." _A bright yellow magic circle appeared in front of the mage clothed in black, **"Fire!"**

The massive yellow ray of light swallowed the red daggers before they could harm Nanoha, "Please stop, Tome of the Night Sky!"

"Enough words. Starlight Breaker…. Stars gather, and become the light which pierces everything." A bright pink magical array that was about the size of a house formed in front of the white haired woman dressed in black. An orb began to materialize, drawing energy from the residual magic in the atmosphere around them.

"Starlight…. Breaker?" Nanoha uttered disbelievingly.

"Nanoha-chan… we have to get away!" Without waiting for the girl's reply, Fate grabbed the stunned girl around her waist and began to fly away as fast as possible.

"Eh? What do you mean? We can just shield it can't we?"

Fate smiled weakly, "You're the only one who hasn't been hit by your own Starlight Breaker isn't it?"

Nanoha tilted her head cutely as if she didn't understand, "It's alright, Nanoha-chan." Fate said soothingly, "Just trust me. We need to get away as far as possible to evade it."

"**Sir, there are non-combatants on the field at three hundred yards." **

"Fate, we've gone far enough, we need to help those people."

Unable to say no, Fate silently nodded and the two of them drop to the ground. Silently looking behind her, she fretted that it wasn't nearly as far away as she liked.

While Nanoha and Fate began searching for the non-combatants in the area, Signum took the opportunity to buy enough time for the two of them.

"_Karyuu Issen!"_ a wave of fire engulfed the white haired woman with red tattoos engraved into her skin, "Stop that, Book of Darkness! I am Signum, Knight of the Sword, please stop this foolishness!" Signum begged loudly, refusing to run away from her creator.

"My Knight…. Even you call me the Book of Darkness…" the woman seemed to wilt further into despair, "Tear through everything in a blaze of light. "

Signum shielded her eyes from the bright glare as a pinkish white light seemed to engulf the world; a wave hot wind assaulted the Knight's senses until she felt someone shielding her.

When the glare finally died down, Signum realized that Nanoha had somehow risked her own safety to save her. She could only stare at her trembling hands, "I'm sorry... I'm being so useless."

"I never thought I'd see the day the proud knight Signum would apologize." Fate commented softly as she appeared behind Nanoha, a thoroughly scared and confused Arisa and Suzuki trailing behind, "Where is your pride as a knight?"

Signum drew deep shuddering breath and slowly stood up, "You're right. You were all right. I have to stop this. When Hayate-chan summoned us, it was decided that we would stop being tools of destruction, that includes the Will of Book of Darkness."

"Not you alone," Fate clasped the older woman's hands in her smaller ones, "We'll stop this."

While Fate was reassuring Signum, Nanoha gently held both Arisa and Suzuki's hands in hers, "I'm sorry, Arisa-chan, Suzuki-chan. This wasn't the way I wanted to tell you everything… but Fate-chan and I have been hiding a lot of things from you."

"Hiding what?" Arisa uttered incredulously, "That the two of you are some sort of heroes flying around and shooting huge beams of destruction?"

Nanoha sweat dropped, "Something like that… I promise that we're not hurting anybody though."

"Argh! Everything is so confusing! You owe me an explanation!"

"_Nanoha? Can you hear me?"_ a hazy voice blared over the hazy communication line, prompting everyone there to widen their eyes in surprise at the disembodied voice.

The auburn haired girl held up one hand to Arisa apologetically, "Chrono? Is that you Chrono?! What happened? Why couldn't we get in touch with the Arthra before this?"

"_I'm afraid explaining will take too long, we'll be there in a while, but in the meantime reinforcements should be arriving by now."_

Nanoha felt herself sigh in relief, "Before that, we found some non-combatants caught in the barrier. Can you please teleport them somewhere safer?" Nanoha sent Arisa and Suzuki a look, "Somewhere where they can still see us fight. I don't want to have any more secrets from my friends."

The grateful look her two childhood friends sent her warmed Nanoha's heart.

"_It's a little difficult… but alright. By the way,_ _look up. Your reinforcement is on the way, but he's a little __**off**__ so be careful." _

"Up?" The group thoroughly confused nine year olds peered up at the heavy stormy sky that was currently cracking with static electricity, until Fate widened her eyes and pointed at a slight red glow forming above the heavy clouds, "Nanoha-chan!"

"What the heck is that?!"

Even before it managed to penetrate their consciousness due to the sheer impossibleness of what they were seeing, Signum growled and shielded the smaller girls with her body, "Hold on."

A red comet blasted its way through the clouds, shearing them apart like cotton candy before colliding with a noticeably surprised Book of Darkness. The force from their collision created a shockwave of vapour and wind that was powerful enough to blow away the sea water under them.

Carefully, Nanoha shook off the layer of dust and water that had fallen on them before apprehensively opening one eye to stare at the sight of a glowing red crater a few hundred meters from the coast. Standing in the middle of the crater, as impossible as it seemed were two panting figures.

One eyebrow slowly rose and Nanoha face palmed, "What did that idiot do **now**?"

"I should have known he was in this too." Arisa rolled her eyes, feeling strangely detached all of a sudden as her disbelief hit the red zone.

"_He jumped off the Arthra while it was in orbit."_ Chrono deadpanned over the comm line, _"He almost ended up in Africa." _

The smaller figure between the two standing in the crater began to hop around on his soles as he clutched at his head. Even from where they were hiding, they could hear him shouting comically, "Hot, hot, hot, hot!" before he suddenly paused, "Wait… it's **not** hot. This Barrier thing ROCKS! Someone hit me so I can see how much it can take!"

An annoyed and somewhat dirty Book of Darkness promptly obliged by shooting him in the face with several _Bloody Daggers_.

The smoking pile of idiot flew through the air before skidding to a halt several meters away from them, "Ow."

The idiot jumped back up and pumped his fists, "Caliburn, let's do that again."

His Device muttered several impolite words.

Nanoha face palmed again while Fate giggled softly and directed her question towards Chrono, "You know… I don't really think I'm a picky girl but some **nominally sane** back up would've been nice."

"_Uh…. The line is breaking up. We'll be there as soon as possible. By the way, remember to buy some duct tape. We ran out." _

"Whaaa?"

A smiling Naruto bounced up to the group of girls staring at him with a stupid look on his face, "Hey."

Fate sighed softly and gently slapped Naruto's head, "Behave."

The blonde pouted for about half a second before he began bouncing again, "I was just trying to be polite…. Incidentally, what's the plan?"

"We hit her until she stops being a brat," The somewhat annoyed Nanoha bluntly said, "And starts listening."

The blonde nodded wisely, clapping a grinning Nanoha on the shoulder, "I like that plan. I **really **like that plan."

Signum sighed with some exasperation, "I'm starting to wonder if idiocy is contagious." She smiled briefly, "I'm starting to feel like slapping her too."

Naruto glanced at where an open mouth Arisa and Suzuki who were staring at him with wide eyes. The blonde nonchalantly waved at them, "Hey."

"Hey?" Arisa choked out in a strangled tone, "You drop out of the bloody sky like a meteor and all you can say to us is **HEY?! HEY MY ASS**!" the more outspoken Arisa punched him in the gut.

"Nice job, Arisa-chan."

"Thanks. I feel so much better already."

Naruto who currently had his face planted in the ground waved one finger at her and spoke in a muffled tone, "I assume that Nanoha already gave you some facts, but we promise to tell you everything afterwards. Just get somewhere safe."

Arisa rolled her eyes again at his muffled tone as a fuzzy magical array appeared around her and Suzuki, "Just don't die, idiot."

"He won't." Signum deadpanned, "I tried really hard too."

Arisa laughed somewhat hysterically just before she disappeared, "Anyone that tries to kill him has to be a nice person."

"Excuse me, I'm still here."

"No one cares."

******Caliburn Initiative*******

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Libera Me From Hell**

The blonde boy stood up and patted down the front of his plain looking dark blue Barrier Jacket, something that he had spontaneously reprogrammed on his way through the stratosphere. Naruto smiled, "The sky is clear, perfect for flying eh?"

All four mages shared one look before separating.

Crimson eyes watched the auburn haired girl appear on the horizon with a fierce expression, Raising Heart already at the ready while she felt another presence on her other side.

"_Divine Buster Extension, Shoot!" _

"_Plasma Smasher, Fire!" _

The will of the Book of Darkness sighed softly, _"Panzerschild," _a hazy midnight blue array appeared on each hand as she easily stopped both spells cold in their tracks with ease.

"_Hiryuu Issen!" _someone roared from behind her, taking advantage of her vulnerability, as a flaming chain sword slashed her back, with little to no effect as her Barrier stopped the attack.

A slight smoke rose from her back as the woman frowned, and lifted her hands again when she realized there was still one more Mage flying towards her in what looked like full body tackle.

She shot him down instantly, sending the burning blonde crashing into a building.

A smoking Naruto's head popped up from under some rubble as he blew smoke out, "Flying is hard." Bursting out of the rubble without hesitation, the blonde began to scale yet another building with large loping steps.

"_What are you doing Naruto?"_ he heard Signum call out angrily.

"_Unfortunately, I can't fly. At best, I can glide, and to do that, I need to get to somewhere high."_ Naruto muttered.

"_Bu-"_

"_Just keep attacking,"_ Naruto cut Fate off through gritted teeth, _"I know I'm just a bother if I can't fly, but as long as I can be another target for her, that means more chances for you to hit her. Don't worry about me." _

His second attempt went a little better as he dodged the first two Bloody Daggers before being promptly blasted by the remaining Daggers. The blonde crashed into the ground in a smoking wreck. Without missing a beat, he began climbing another tower.

With a grin, the blonde dodged the first three Daggers and deflected the next four until he was hit by everything else, sending him crashing back to the ground.

A huge pink beam cut a swath through her defences as the blonde girl in a black Barrier Jacket teamed up with her traitor of a Knight to keep her busy at close to mid-range.

"Tome of the Night Sky! Please stop!" Nanoha pleaded.

"My Mistress…. Wants everything that hurts to go away. She wants this world that took away everything precious to her to be nothing but a nightmare." The woman spoke in a soft monotone that seemed to throb with sadness, "I shall obey her first and last order as she slumbers eternally."

"Then why the heck are you crying?" Crimson eyes snapped open in surprise as she realized the boy had managed to glide his way, clinging to her expanded Barrier like a lizard.

"These tears are my Mistress' tears." She answered in a monotone.

"You say those words with such a sad face, who do you think will believe you?!" Fate retorted sadly.

Nanoha drew a deep breath as she reloaded her supply of cartridges, "Those are not just Hayate-chan's tears, those are your tears as well! You don't want to do this anymore than we do!"

The white haired woman looked down on the girl, almost pityingly, "That… is impossible. I am but a tool. A tool cannot cry."

"That's what I used to think." Signum roared as she flew in between Fate and Naruto, "I had Hayate-sama there for me, I had the other Knights with me, I'm not a tool! And neither are YOU!"

"It's impossible!"

"Every time someone says the word impossible, it just makes me want to break something." The boy who was smashing his fist on her Barrier uselessly muttered. The bracers that seemed to be his Device's activated form were already dented beyond belief as he continued to pound on her shield.

"Why won't you stop fighting?" the entire area around them was beginning to quake as cracks appeared in the ground, "I'm already beginning to destabilize. Soon I will go berserk, by then it is impossible to stop me. Why try so hard to fight the inevitable?"

"Because you said it was impossible for you to cry." The book of Darkness blinked as she heard something cracking. Naruto grinned maliciously as he wedged his fingers into the crack and pulled. The throbbing veins in his muscles began to stand out as the stupid, clumsy blonde widened the crack with nothing but his bare hands and a roar towards the heavens.

Every time she sent him crashing into the ground, he just got back up and climbed another tower.

And then he came soaring right at her, dodging more and more of her attacks each time.

His blue eyes shone brightly until he finally landed on her expanded Barrier, clinging to it like a lizard.

The two of them locked gazes.

His eyes shone even brighter, they said; _My spirit is not broken yet. _

_Unlike you._

And Naruto grinned, "NANOHA! GO!"

"Got you!" the girl in white appeared behind him to shove her staff directly into the crack, "Starlight BREAKERRR."

A massive pink array filled the little barrier as the staff pumped every single cartridge Nanoha had loaded into the spell.

"**SHOOOT!" **

There was a massive explosion in mid-air as the spell went off, the force of the spell almost doubled due to it being contained within the Book's barrier, with the only way out being directly into Naruto's grinning face.

The two nine year olds fell to the earth like a comet, smoking badly as he crashed into the ground in a limp pile.

"Naruto! Nanoha!" Fate cried as she landed between the two of them in a near panic until Nanoha's hand gently squeezed her right, and Naruto her left.

"We're fine." Both of them muttered simultaneously as they got up painfully, "The Barrier Jacket took the worst of the damage. It was weaker than usual because I didn't give it time to gather but that should have at least hurt her more than a little because of the confined space."

Fate couldn't help but half chuckle and half sob, "The two of you are idiots."

"If it worked, it isn't stupid." The blonde on her left remarked dryly as he gestured at the woman who was still floating in mid-air, although she looked as if she had taken a fire cracker to the face.

"She's not down yet."

"We'll keep her busy, Nanoha load something powerful and watch for a chance!"

Grabbing Naruto's collar, Fate took off with Bardiche at the ready.

It had been a little too fast for Signum too stop as she recognized the array.

As the two blondes rocketed towards her, the white haired woman thundered, "That's enough!" showing the first hint of true emotion since the fight had begun and blocked their attacks with a triangle barrier, "Absorption!"

Nanoha watched with horror as her two friends disappeared in a burst of yellow sparks, "Fate-chan? Naruto!?"

*******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Shiro Sagisu – Stand Up Be Strong**

"Naruto! You're back!"

The blonde found himself standing in front of two rather familiar gates, each of them were as large as a good sized house. A massive mountain set in the distance with seven faces carved into the sheer rock worked as a background for the welcoming committee.

"You're back, Naruto-sama! You disappeared all of a sudden after the war! We thought the blast killed you or something!" One familiar man cheered loudly.

"We should have known you wouldn't have died from something like that! But I guess it must've thrown you pretty far huh?"

"Hail, Rokudaime!"

A heavy hand clapped his shoulder in a rather familiar way.

"Jiraiya-sensei?"

******Caliburn Initiative******

A fist burst out of Reinforce's chest, the shock on her face matching those on everybody watching as a head of sunshine blonde hair crawled his way out of her chest before gravity reasserted itself and the blonde figure fell towards the sea before landing with a massive boom.

As water droplets fell around a noticeably hacked off Naruto if the crimson eyes and golden aura was any indication, assuming Naruto was six feet tall with deep whiskers etched on his sharply defined features that is. Unfurling the bundle he seemed be carrying, the man slipped on a white cape with blue flames decorating the bottom and edged with gold.

"I am** not** happy." He remarked in a rather neutral tone.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Next update: Ending of the Tome of the Night Sky Arc

Incidentally, can anyone give me the general plot to the A's game where the Materials show up? We were planning on including them in Caliburn's early drafts, but if we can't find any info on them, we'll be forced to leave them out. And no, we can't read Japanese.


	8. Eighth Step: Selfish Bastard

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 8**

**Eighth Step: Selfish Bastard**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

**Soundtrack List **

Akeboshi – Wind

BlazBlue OST – Black Onslaught

Groove Addicts – Ashes to Ashes

Kana Ueda – Snow Rain [Another Approach]

Yasuharu Takanashi - My Name

TTGL OST – Happily Ever After

Sambomaster – Seishun Kyousou Kyoku

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Naruto, I'm glad to see you're alright."

The blonde that he had been speaking too gaped at the tall white haired man.

He looked... unchanged.

Exactly the same as the last time Naruto had seen him; the same red vest draped over a forest green kimono, long messy white hair, broad shoulders and stupid wide grin.

His old sensei stood there, larger than life as he enthusiastically slapped the boy's back, "What's wrong brat? Frog got your tongue?"

His protégé failed to answer as his sky blue eyes panned over to the large group of shinobi waiting for him; it looked like the entire village had managed to squash themselves between the large oaken doors of Konoha. Some of them were even sitting or standing on the walls and gates since there wasn't enough space.

Standing at the very front of the large congregation were several special people, all of them waved at him with wide grins.

"Tsunade-baa chan…. Kakashi-sensei..." He breathed out in a tiny whisper, "Sakura-chan… Sasuke…. But you're all…. Dead."

"Dead?" The tall man standing beside him chuckled loudly, "That blow to the head must've really messed you up; you can't have forgotten how badly you beat that stupid man and Madara can you? We were worried when you disappeared all of a sudden, but I knew you'd be back. Nothing keeps you down for long." Jiraiya clapped his back heartily, "C'mon, ramen's on me."

Naruto closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, '_Kurama? Are you seeing this?'_

A reply came from deep within his mind_,__** 'Seeing…. Still working on believing. If this is a genjutsu, it's a damn good one.'**_

'_Alright, let's calm down for now and backtrack. I remember fighting that crazy woman and then…..'_

'_**Uh… why are you asking ME? I could barely see anything through that red haze. You were basically moving on autopilot by the time the black haired kid put a couple of holes in you.'**_

'_Fair enough.' _Naruto allowed with a reluctant nod_, 'It was all a little hazy to me too. All I really remember is a lot of fighting and flashy light shows.' _The blonde sighed with some resignation_, 'At least I'm not a kid anymore,_' the young blonde boy who was nearly as tall as Jiraiya mumbled to himself before he seemed to remember that the Toad Sage was still waiting for an answer. Naruto smirked at the expectant Toad Sage, "You were saying something about an all you can eat ramen buffet?"

"Interesting how getting blasted across the continent made you forget everything except ramen." His teacher deadpanned as the two of them walked towards the welcoming committee.

Naruto only had time to shrug in reply before he was promptly engulfed within a massive hug from a pink haired girl and her busty teacher even as everybody else overwhelmed him with questions and congratulations alike.

"I was so worried, why didn't you come back sooner if you were fine!?" She thumped his chest with a fist.

"I broke a limb or two." Naruto replied with a laconic smirk, though it was somewhat softer than usual, "It took me a while to climb a mountain with only my teeth and three fingers."

Sakura half sobbed before she sniffed and wiped away the snot on the blonde's navy blue shirt much to his chagrin, "Idiot."

"You're washing that for me," Naruto noted before he glanced over at where a dark haired man stood waiting for him with a casual smirk. Extricating himself from the two women, the blonde slowly walked over to Sasuke.

The two of them stared at each other before the Uchiha slowly extended his hand to him, "You're finally back, dobe. It was getting as little hard to stop Sakura from going out there on her own to look for your blasted ass."

"She can't drink." The blonde replied civilly as he grasped the offered hand and they shook on it, "You should have force fed her a bottle or two and you wouldn't have to worry about it for the next week."

"I'm surprised you're taking this so well. I thought you'd be freaking out and cheering like a mad man by now." A cool voice pointed out from above him.

"Oh I am," The blonde smiled and glanced upwards where Kakashi's was sticking to the wooden gates by the soles of his sandals, "That's why I'm being such a smart ass right now. If I wasn't, I'd be blubbering and crying my eyes out. Can't spoil my reputation as the badass Seventh Hokage in front of all the kids now can I?"

Kakashi snorted, "Best thing that ever happened to you I swear. It managed to get you out of that orange jumpsuit when everything else failed."

Naruto glanced downwards and plucked at the navy blue shirt and baggy pants with a small supply bag taped around his right thigh with some bandages. It was the standard Konoha Jounin fatigues, only he wasn't wearing the green forest vest that usually came with it, "Now that you mention it, I should really get some orange shouldn't I?"

What little he could see of the scarecrow's face blanched, "NO! I uh… mean you look fine, perfectly dashing." His head bobbed frantically as he desperately tried to correct his mistake at mentioning orange, "Understated lethality."

Ignoring the man's panicked attempts at assuring him with much fortitude, Naruto pretended to muse to himself, "Maybe after ramen. A little orange here and there would be nice. An orange cloak, stripes and a butt flap would go nicely with everything wouldn't it?"

Chuckling as Kakashi stumbled over his own words, the blonde and his entourage continued talking as they made their way to a familiar side stall where two extremely warm faces greeted him with affection.

Already laid out on the every inch of the counter was every single type of ramen ever created and some that even he hadn't known existed.

It took every ounce of the blonde's hard earned discipline not to just dash over and starting the culinary version of a slaughter.

**Play Akeboshi - Wind**

A few hours later Naruto found himself sighing in pleasure as he sat down on his own little spot with a bottle of sake in one hand and three saucers in the other.

From his vantage point on the Fourth Hokage's head, he could clearly see the crowded little ramen stall far below him. He could faintly see their lips moving, everyone was chatting quietly in little groups, but he couldn't hear the words. It was a pleasant little buzzing in the background that only added to the mellow atmosphere that seemed to saturate the clearing.

Naruto leaned back onto the tree and patted his bloated stomach in utter satisfaction and contentment, "I had a lot of regrets you know. I never thought I'd be able to taste Teuchi-jii san's ramen ever again."

"Why not?" The tall and slender man beside him asked with one raised eyebrow at the sudden sober topic.

Naruto ignored the question in favour of humming to himself as he poured a cup of sake for the two men who were beside him. "I never thought I'd be able to have one last civil conversation with you, Sasuke or properly say good bye to you, Jiraiya-sensei."

The dark haired man slowly nodded with a confused expression that very clearly said that he thought there was something wrong with Naruto, "I don't understand. Why not? I came back to Konoha after we beat Madara and Tobi didn't we?"

The Toad Sage on his left grunted in affirmation, "He's right. The two of you have been best friends ever since then. He's even kept your house clean, waiting for you to come back. And say good bye? Why would you want to do that?"

The blonde's chuckle had a distinctly dark tint to it as his tone lowered into a deep growl, "Ah… but I **KNOW** that can't be possible," The blonde observed in a matter of fact tone, "Because I killed him with my own bare hands. The last few words we exchanged consisted mostly of curses and screams." He glanced at the black eyed man in the off white kimono, "Don't you remember?" the Uchiha's eyes widened as the yellow haired Uzumaki's gaze landed on him.

His left pupil had turned red and slitted, "Again and again I kept trying to talk to you. I was so determined, so resolved on saving you that people began to lose faith. The Alliance was broken up because nearly everybody thought I was driven to madness by my loyalty to a certified psychopathic murderer; my presence jeopardized everything because I prioritized you over the mission. Only Konoha remained on my side because they trusted in me, they believed in me after everything I did for them. So did Gaara actually, but he had to put his village before himself. One by one, they all left and I kept hoping you would come back."

There was a manic glint in his blue eyes, as if he just remembered a long forgotten hope, "I thought that was it you know. After you finally talked to Tou-san and the other Hokage's you looked like you were finally starting to listen to reason again. With that settled, I figured that once I explained to everybody that Uke and Sasuke weren't the same person; that you weren't you when you went off on that revenge trip, everything would finally go back to normal," Naruto knew he was rambling almost incoherently but he couldn't help it, "It was the PERFECT HAPPY ENDING!"

He cackled as he stared at Sasuke with a fanatic look in his eyes, "But then you stabbed us in the back and I had to kill you. I plunged my hand into your chest and ripped your heart out before I crushed your eyes. I made sure it was you too, just in case you learned some freaky immortal thing from Snake Sucker or Akatsuki, cut off head, stuff with garlic, burn everything etcetera."

Naruto suddenly laughed whimsically, "By then, I think most everyone already knew I was so far gone that they gave up, so they did the worst thing they could. They sacrificed themselves for me; chuck me into a goddamned Kamui to keep me safe. Last hope my ass. Keep the fires going **My.** **Fucking. Ass**."

The saucer slowly melted in Naruto's superheated palms, "I wondered you know. Being thrown into a goddamn Kamui gives you a lot of time to think. You don't even know how much time has passed when you're in there."

The old Toad Sage chuckled hesitantly as he squatted down beside the blonde boy crying with a blank expression and ruffled the blonde's hair with a vague, reassuring smile, "I think you're a little tired. Maybe you should cut back on the sake and rest a little before we continue this conversation."

The blonde Hokage snorted derisively as he slapped away his teacher's attempt to deprive him of his alcohol, "Being stuck in a boring black place with nothing to do for Kami knows how long tends to do that to someone. I stayed there for so long; I must have gone insane a few times. Musing about my doubts was the **ONLY **thing I **could** do. I didn't even know how much time had passed, I didn't even know whether they won or…" Naruto hesitated before shaking his head, "Let's just say that suddenly getting sucked into **ANOTHER** crazy hole and getting frozen violently didn't really help. At least it was something new."

He roughly wiped his tears away with the back of his hand, "I was imprisoned in there with all my doubts. I kept remembering my childhood, everything I had ever done, over and over and over and over again. Should I have stopped chasing you Sasuke?!" He screamed at the silent Uchiha, "Should I have lashed out against those idiots that ignored and treated me like air? No, even worse, **I FELT LIKE I DIDN'T EXIST ANYMORE**!" the blonde raged impotently while the two men watched on with uncannily blank faces as they were not equipped to deal with the blonde's insane raging.

Something that only caused Naruto to laugh even harder.

Crowbel never knew how right she was when she realized that Naruto had a few mental kinks to work out.

Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, the blonde stopped laughing. Calmly, he tipped the entire bottle and gulped the rest of the liquid down, "So what now?" He regarded the two of them with a shrewd look in his eye, "I imagine that I was meant to stay here in happiness, but that doesn't really work when I'm insane you know. All I see is your faces mocking me. Telling me that I failed."

"I'm just a figment of your imagination made by that girl. I can't really help you that." Jiraiya replied in a monotone as the construct that was supposed to be Sasuke slowly dissolved into a dark mist.

Below him, Konoha slowly melted away into a plain white expanse save the large statue of Minato Namikaze's head.

"Yeah I guess not." Naruto sniffed violently as he clapped his knees with finality and stood up, "Heh, I must look really uncool huh? Going off on a random rant like that."

"Pretty much." Jiraiya smiled reluctantly, "A certain idiot who jumps into the fray without ever thinking looks way cooler than you do now."

"I guess so. I'm going now; I've got something I need to do…." Naruto started to walk away before abruptly running back and hugging the old man who was still sitting on the Yondaime's head tightly, feeling like a 9 year old again.

Naruto heaved one last weak sob into the man's back.

"I'll be seeing you, Jiraiya-sensei."

"Take your time. Seriously. Don't hurry. You've got a few sweet girls waiting for you on the other side after all…" Jiraiya grinned his familiar, ever perverted smile, "You lucky bastard."

Naruto began running, he didn't know where, he just ran.

"Oi, Naruto!"

The blonde stopped and whirled around.

"What is it?!"

"You left something." The old man threw a ragged white bundle that had appeared out of nowhere to him.

As the blonde caught the bundle, he sniffed again and forced the welling tears back. Throwing a thumbs-up at the old man, both of them grinning the same old stupid smile, free of troubles and filled with innocence.

"Thanks sensei."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play BlazBlue OST – Black Onslaught**

A fist burst out of Reinforce's chest, the shock on her face matched those on everybody watching as a head of sunshine blonde hair wrenched his way out of her chest.

The blonde gave an animalistic roar before gravity reasserted itself and the blonde figure fell towards the sea before landing with a massive boom.

A tall figure slowly straightened itself as droplets of water fell around him in a mockery of rain, mixing in with the hot tears that dripped off his whiskered cheeks.

Mismatched eyes, one crimson and the other sapphire stared up at the floating woman defiantly as a golden aura tainted with black streaks flared up around the six feet tall man. With a flick of his wrist, the bundle in his hands unfurled magnificently as he slipped it onto his shoulders.

The white cape edged with gold thread flapped in the wind.

"I am not happy."

The two of them continued crying as they stared at each other with utterly emotionless expressions, "Now you know my pain." She whispered at him as a brace of red daggers formed around the strange man.

He glanced at them dismissively and stomped once, sending a blast of water upwards, catching the daggers before they could even get near him. The wall of water exploded and by the time the mist had settled enough to see, the stranger was no longer there.

He was above her.

"I don't care about your pain." He said quietly, and yet his words reached her over the strong wind as easily his kick shattered her barrier.

The Book of Darkness grunted as she barely managed to bring up her hands in time to block the axe kick as his mismatched eyes looked down on her with cool disdain, "Your pain is useless to me."

A clone appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, immobilizing her as four other clones appeared in tandem, moving in sync as they casually and easily swept her feet out from underneath her before two of them landed massively powerful elbow strikes on her knee caps, brutally shattering them before they all clung to her arms like leeches and exploded like moving bombs.

A small girl watched in horror as the strange newcomer that had appeared out of nowhere began wailing on The Book of Darkness, his familiar striking appearance only increased the worry gnawing at her mind.

"Trying to deal with stubborn, deaf and berserk Mages is getting a little annoying." Nanoha commented quietly, "Raising Heart, initiate _Axel Shooter_."

Her closest confidante seemed to hesitate, **[Are you sure, Master?] **

Nanoha drew in a deep calming breath, "Very."

**[…. Call me Excelion Mode.]**

Her eyes widened, "I can't do that, Raising Heart. Your frame hasn't been reinforced," She pointed out dubiously.

**[We need it. Call me Excelion Mode to save everybody.]**

"Thank you… Ra.. Raising Heart…." She whispered softly, "Excelion Mode."

The golden sections moved with purpose as Raising Heart pumped a shell into the main frame, discarding a spent shell as its tip shifted into a more spear like formation. Three slowly revolving spell arrays appeared around Raising Heart as Nanoha hefted the staff upwards.

Far above Nanoha, the original Naruto floated calmly, watching dispassionately as his clones systematically broke her body until a bright pink ray of light lanced out of nowhere, briefly causing the man to stumble in mid-air to avoid it before being forced to execute a series of acrobatics in order to dodge the following blasts of magic.

Red and blue eyes briefly gazed at his attacker before they silently went back to the beleaguered Book of Darkness.

Brown hair whipped in the high wind as Nanoha approached him, "Why are you doing this?! Where is Fate-chan!?"

He ignored her demands, relishing in the look of pain on The Book's face as his clones carried out staggered waves of coordinated attacks on her, exploiting every opening to the maximum.

Crimson eyes went wide with pain as the silver haired woman tried to scream, her badly burnt arms flailing limply. Just as she was sucking in the breath required for a scream, a fist buried itself in her gut, driving all the remaining oxygen in her lungs out. Gulping in deep breaths of sweet air, the silver haired woman with red markings on her cheeks angled her body to fly away from the clones since they only seemed to specialize in close range combat.

Whirling around she flung out her arms, "Photon Lancer, Genocide Shift!" Dark orbs of lightning filled the entire sky, decimating an entire army of blondes. But they just kept coming.

Unrelentingly, like driven ants, they surged and used their comrades as shields, slowly but surely overwhelming the continuous output of lightning when the tidal wave of clones seemed to slow down.

Her moment of triumph was short lived as she was promptly met by the sight of a whole group of clones lined up in the horizon, their jaws distended grotesquely and a furiously spinning orb of inky blackness gathering within their bulging oral cavity.

Her wings instantly folded and she dropped out of the sky, barely evading the first blast and immediately realized her mistake when three more rays of sheer black destruction cut off her escape, these particular clones had used the tidal wave as a distraction, allowing themselves to make sure there was no escape from the torrents of pure darkness as they barrelled into her like several dump trucks in a row.

"No cast time?" She muttered to herself as she waded through the unrelenting barrage as her black uniform struggled to slowly repair itself, "That's not possible, what spell is that?! Why don't I know?!"

She knew the blonde. She had seen his mind. She knew his arsenal.

This was NOT that person.

By absorbing him and his core, she should have known every attack pattern he had and yet his fighting style was disgustingly different. This one fought savagely, brutally and spared no quarter, while the other preferred effective and efficient techniques to force a submission.

She had not seen that particular one before either. The only explanation she could think up through the haze of pain was that he came up with it on the spot after his release. Choking and trying to catch her breath, the crimson eyed woman savoured the sweet clean air when she burst free from the cloud of ash, completely failing to notice yet another blonde phasing into existence behind her as she mumbled to herself.

"Your pain is not worth my time." The clone whispered in her ear.

"Black Impact!" She whirled around as fast as possible, when the blonde coldly deflected the fist swathed in blackness. The clone snapped her wrist before he slammed his palm into her elbow, bending it the wrong way with a wet crack.

Jerking upwards, he kneed her armpit and snapped the clavicle mercilessly before his foot collided with her spine, sending her flying like a rag doll.

"Naruto?" A small voice called out to original as a hesitant Nanoha lifted Raising Heart at the strange man who seemed to be floating in mid-air without any assistance from his Device, "That's you isn't it? What are you doing?"

"I am merely subduing the target." The blonde finally replied softly, his eyes flashed across the battlefield, coordinating his clones into tactical formations as they ruthlessly ripped the Book into shreds with his arms crossed.

"You're not subduing the target," Nanoha retorted angrily, "You're just venting your anger!"

Naruto cocked his head as he dabbed at the tear tracks on his cheeks.

"Look at yourself," She said angrily, "Even you know what you are doing is wrong!"

The man woodenly her a brief gaze before he resolved himself again, "Do not interfere."

Violet eyes narrowed at his reply as a blade of light slowly extended from the tip of Raising Heart's Buster Mode. "If you will not listen, I will not hesitate to attack you again. _Accel Charger! Activate!" _

The symmetrical points of Raising Heart's Excellion mode separated, allowing a small spark to come to life between the two prongs, "Strike Flame."

To emphasize her command, the golden tipped spear like staff loudly discharged a used shell, causing three wings made of a pinkish light to flare open from the staff at Nanoha's growl before it dispensed another spent shell.

The wings and blade began to vibrate with power as extra magic pulsed through them.

The man inclined his head in the direction of the screaming silver haired woman, "And exactly what do you expect to achieve with that if it couldn't even scratch her? Come back with a bigger knife girl."

"_Excelion Buster, A.C.S, DRIVE!" _

Mismatched eyes tracked the girl's movements with ease, his superior kinetic vision caught her every move as she thrust the staff like a spear.

Naruto snorted dismissively as he easily dodged her boosted Drive attack, the energy blade at the tip just barely grazing his cheek before he lashed out with one hand.

The exhaust rods at the back of the spear point whistled loudly as it discharged the pent up heat to get ready for the next spell.

"This isn't like you!" Using every bit of her experience, Nanoha ducked under the fist and swung Raising Heart around his reach, "Raising_ Divine_ Heart _Buster_!"

The look on his face said everything that needed to be said when he felt something sharp tapping against the bottom of his chin, "Oh Fu-**BOOOM**!"

The blast knocked him right out of the sky.

Above him, Nanoha chased after the smoking blonde with an angry scowl. Using a burst of speed from Raising Heart, Nanoha propelled herself at the dazed blonde and used the exact same joint lock he had against her by slipping both her smaller arms underneath his before grasping the staff in a reverse crucifix.

Smirking, the blonde was about to break her nose when he heard her whisper something.

"The Naruto I know is stupid; he hates lessons and always sleeps in class but I can tell how hard he tries! He keeps reading the textbooks again and again until the pages tear!"

He immediately froze. Since she was behind him, he couldn't see her, but he could feel droplets of hot liquid splashing on the back of his neck.

"He's a little clumsy and he always tries to argue with me for the dumbest reasons but I know that he really hates to be alone. I know that he wouldn't hurt anybody just because he was ANGRY! You are NOT that Naruto!" Nanoha shouted fiercely, "GIVE HIM BACK!"

Naruto flinched at her words and staggered as they hit him like a brace of bombardment spells.

Rigidly straightening up again with ragged breathing as his confidence wavered, he wriggled out of her grapple easily and backhanded the nine year old girl with a cold expression, sending her shooting away with a painful scream before Signum managed to stop her momentum with her own body just before she hit the cement pavement.

"Something is wrong with him, he's not…. Here."

"He's fighting a ghost." Signum softly replied as she helped Nanoha up, recognizing the look in the blonde's eyes, "We have to stop him before he does something he'll regret."

Up in the sky, the whiskered man glanced at his right fist as blood dripped from the nail marks.

It was beginning to shake uncontrollably again.

"I don't have much time, I have to finish this soon." Angling his body, Naruto propelled himself towards the Book of Darkness as another blonde seamlessly appeared beneath her.

Desperately trying to regroup, she released a point blank shockwave of dark magic that washed over the blonde. In that fraction of a second, she witnessed the deep black aura that was wrapped around the dull eyed clone repelling her spell and it smirked at her before he socked her chin so hard that the force of it created a strong shockwave, sending her flying upwards towards the original.

The silver haired woman gasped painfully, her barriers seemed like nothing but wet paper to the clearly berserk blonde. Her momentum carried her up into the sky before she flew straight into Naruto's grip, his outstretched palm catching her windpipe.

Slowly, he began to crush it with a sneer. Weakly, she began to claw at the fingers holding her aloft by the neck as her vision slowly darkened. She uselessly tried to stab his chest with a Blood Dagger, but its sharp point kept slipping off the gold aura, as if it was repelling her spell.

**What was with this man's overwhelming hate and power? **

"The pain of someone who can't even bring herself to try to defy her programming before giving up is pathetic."

The harsh words battered at her failing consciousness as she gathered all her remaining strength and punched him, so hard that she heard her knuckles cracking.

It did a grand total of jack.

**Why was he so strong?**

"Those tears are the tears of a worthless program that is only capable of hating herself as she bows down and lets other people walk all over her own wishes."

A dangerous looking orb began forming in his free arm with an ear bursting screech.

"Neh? If I kill you, can I see them again?" the smile on his lips stretched beyond insanity, "I can, can't I?"

Behind him, she could faintly see her Knight, and the small mage racing towards them with horror in their eyes as her death approached inexorably.

Red, blue, black and gold strands of magic mixed together to form an uncomprehendingly destructive orb surrounded by a four pointed star, _"Super Rasen-Shuriken."_

Fully intent on killing himself along with the woman, Naruto thrust the truck sized orb into her abdomen.

"**STOP!"**

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Groove Addicts – Ashes to Ashes**

Chrono sucked in a deep breath as he held his aching side, using the D2U as a walking stick; he limped his way towards the bridge where he knew his father's best friend was currently holding his mother hostage.

Without him needing to say anything, the doors automatically separated with a soft hydraulic hiss to reveal the darkness within. Chrono rolled his eyes, "You really like the dark don't you?"

The man sitting on Lindy's chair chortled quietly though his eyes never left the monitor, "I never took you for the sarcastic type."

"I learnt it from a friend," The dark haired boy countered offhandedly as he limped into the room, his eyes swiftly gazed around the dark room, looking for his mother, "It's a little easier to deal with things when you're staring at the face of absolute terror and commenting on his terrible fashion sense."

"Is the uniform really that bad?"

"It could be better. Wearing black robes and spikes really don't appeal to me all that much." The Enforcer sighed, "I didn't really come here to chat, I'm a little more interested in where my mother happens to be right now." The staff snapped up and a bolt of blue energy raced towards the Admiral before it splashed and fizzled out on a web of blue hexagons.

"That's not very polite, Chrono. I taught you better than that." The chair swung around to reveal a unconscious Lindy sitting on the chair, "At least look before you attack, you might have hurt your mother you know." The voice taunted as Chrono instinctively rolled away scant seconds before he was impaled by a massive spire of ice.

Warily, the young boy stuck to the dark shadows of the room and surreptitiously inched towards his mother in complete silence, his dark coloured robes helping him blend into the darkness.

Sweat rolled down his forehead as his nerves worked on overtime trying to find his mentor.

"I truly do not understand why you are trying to stop me," The older man's voice echoed around the room, "Just look at your _friends_. If they're not being beaten up by the Book of Darkness, they're trying to kill each other, and I'm supposed to believe that you can find a better alternative? Just look at them."

Almost unwillingly, Chrono found his eyes being drawn to the monitor. A number of screens displayed strategic points all around the battlefield as miasma slowly bled from the cracks in the ground. Large snake like creatures crawling out from the bottom of those cracks screeched and yowled as they attacked anything in sight, "Already the Book is going berserk. In a few minutes when the book finally unleashes everything, it will finally be too late to do anything. The window of opportunity has been lost."

"Window? What window?"

"I mentioned it before didn't I? There is a short gap between its true activation where the Defence Program is inert while the Administrator Program shows its true form."

"Thank you, for that very enlightening information." Chrono muttered under his breath. Squeezing his eyelids shut as tightly as possible, Chrono sucked in a deep breath and slammed the butt of his staff on the ground. The tip of the D2U immediately lit up with a flare as bright as the sun. The glare of the light spell illuminated every dark corner of the room as he heard a strangled yelp from behind his mother was supposed to be.

Reacting to the sound, Chrono released a short burst of spell fire in that direction while the Admiral caught the blast with a blue staff easily despite being partially blinded and returned it with a vengeance. The young officer gasped as he felt his own magnified spell hit his chest, sending him crashing against the cold, metal wall.

The bearded old Mage carefully stepped from his shield and squinted at the downed boy with some triumph when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as someone shot a spell at him from the far side of the bridge. Leaning aside, he dodged by the large blade of blue energy and rolled behind the console to gather his breath. Hissing quietly, he pressed his hand against his side where the blade had grazed him, paralysing his left side. He carefully leaned out to glance in the direction of the second spell when he froze at the touch of cold metal on his neck.

The old man couldn't but smile as he glanced at the panting boy standing behind him, "Illusions? Now I'm REALLY surprised. I didn't even notice you casting that spell."

"There was no illusion," Chrono's breaths came hard and fast as he pressed the D2U against his neck a little harder to discourage his mentor from doing anything, "I'm was never very good at it, but I can cast with my free hand, so I simply cast two spells at once; you only caught one while the other bounced off the wall so you thought I was on the other side of the room."

"Ah, the basics. Learning how to cast without a Device's assistance. So you were behind me the whole time," Graham nodded in understanding, "You win this round."

"Thank you," Chrono replied softly and some anguish, even now he still thought of the older man as his mentor, "Please drop your staff."

"I'm getting too old for this." Graham laughed quietly as he massaged his numb side, "I never expected to be lucky enough to encounter the Book of Darkness thrice in one lifetime you know. You never did know your father very well did you?"

He smirked as the staff pressed itself deeper into his flesh as Chrono refused to respond to his question, "Drop the staff, Admiral." He repeated warily.

"I see now that that was my mistake. I kept trying to protect you from that pain, but as a result you could only chose this route because you have never truly felt the pain of losing someone close to you," Graham continued calmly, "Do you want to know that feels? Will you make that choice?"

"What are you talking about?" Chrono demanded angrily.

"The L'Arc-en-ciel's charge sequence has already started. Its current target is Uminari City. Now, will you choose between your friends and your mother?"

Chrono's eyes widened as Graham flung his hands out in opposite directions. He watched as two bolts of lethal energy fizzled out of the blue staff and the Admiral's other palm, one heading towards his slumbering mother, and the other towards the main console.

Abandoning all sense of decorum, Chrono kneed Graham in the face, breaking his nose, and his staff in the process, as he ran towards the first bolt.

He would never be able to raise a shield to stop it in time.

Closing his eyes, and trusting everything else to luck, Chrono threw himself in front of the _Photon Lancer_. He heard rather than felt the dull thud as the blade of pure energy sizzled through his Barrier Jacket and pierced his shoulder.

Its glowing tip stopped just short of his mother's heart.

Breathing heavily, the boy dropped to his knees and clutched at the hole in his shoulder as blood poured from the wound as slow clapping echoed around the dark room.

Peering up through foggy eyes, he growled at the old man whose nose was deliciously broken, "I was willing to sacrifice one life for the good of many. You weren't. Without the console to stop the charge sequence, you now you get to watch all your friends slowly die as the Artha's L'Arc-en-ciel burns them all." Graham gave the stunned boy a pitying look, "Maybe then you'll understand everything I've done."

One greyish brown eyebrow slowly rose as he realized Chrono was chortling to himself quietly.

"I fail to see what is so funny."

"They won't die."

He shrugged callously, "Of course they will. Without the Durandal, it's either a quick death from the Book of Darkness or a slow death as the planet is consumed. It wouldn't really have made any difference though. Without my help, the outcome would have been the same. You would have defeated the Book of Darkness, and it would have simply escaped again."

"No it won't," The boy replied resolutely. On the screen, he could see as Yuuno and Arf tackled Grahamn's two rogue familiars.

He could see as Nanoha blasted Naruto in the face, though he did wince at that one.

"Unlike you, I happen to have more faith in my friends."

"You never used to speak about friends." Graham mused quietly at the pictures emblazoned on the screen behind Chrono as pillars of fiery light began burst out from the ground.

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Kana Ueda – Snow Rain [Another Approach]**

Fate yawned lazily as she stretched in bed. She tried to roll around in her blankets, just to absorb all that lovely warmth from the linen, when someone else moaned sadly at the loss of their own share and tugged the blankets away from her.

Frowning, red eyes opened sleepily.

To the AAA ranked nine year old, for whom there was nothing more important than family, she immediately wished she hadn't as a smaller version of herself curled up into a small ball alongside an absolutely tiny Arf. She stared at the sleeping girl until someone opened the door to the sun lit chambers the three of them were in.

"Morning you three, time to wake up."

Fate's head immediately snapped over to the owner of that strangely familiar voice. She watched disbelievingly as a beautiful woman walked to the blinds and threw them open with a warm smile, "Mou, Alicia, you should learn from Fate. She's already awake and wide eyed."

The adorable bundle of yellow hair beside Fate mumbled something unintelligible though Fate hazily suspected that was for the best. Given that the two of them were essentially the same person, she rather doubted that Alicia was anymore of a graceful morning person than she was.

"Alright, alright, the two of you need to get up. Precia is already waiting for the two of you"

Fate gasped.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Sleepy….. She had never felt so tired before, even for her, this was too strange.

The hazy figure of a beautiful white haired woman in a simple black dress slowly swam in vision.

"Who…. Are…. You?" Every word was a struggle for her to even enunciate.

The woman crying on her lap looked up through tear stained eyes, "Master…." She said something that Hayate couldn't hear, "Broken… Tool…. Wish…"

What did she wish for again?

The strange woman answered her mental question, "You wanted to dream. To dream tranquilly, forever. Peacefully, where no one can hurt you ever again." The voice broke a little, "I am sorry."

But…. That is not a wish, Hayate reasoned, pushing through the heavy fog, it is just a dream.

What was the happiness I wanted?

"You wanted a healthy body, to keep living with those you love…. but you must stay here, Master. There are dangerous people outside. If you sleep here, you can have all that in here."

That…..

Is wrong.

She forced her eyes open through sheer determination.

"I didn't wish for this!"

******Caliburn Initiative******

Fate walked through the corridor, her shoes tapping on the marble floor of the high ceilinged building as if she was in a dream. Corridors that she knew extremely well, corridors that belonged to the Garden of Time, only light filtered through stained glass and there was a sweet smell in the air.

Well, she already knew that she was in a dream; she only wanted to know why. Her throat got tighter and tighter as she got nearer to the great chamber where she could hear Alicia's bird like voice chirping in response to Precia's deeper but loving words.

The dark haired woman looked up to see her youngest daughter peeking at them from behind a great pillar, she could see fear, nervousness and most of all desire, warring in those beautiful red orbs, 'Fate-chan? What's wrong?"

"She thinks it's a dream or an illusion." Alicia smiled mischievously as she teased her younger sister, "I think she studied a little too much."

Precia smiled softly as she beckoned for the shaking girl to come closer.

Step by step, Fate moved towards the beautiful lady she called her mother. Every step she took seemed to break her resistance.

The purple haired woman's arms wrapped themselves around Fate, who flinched, expecting pain, but instead of pain, she could only feel love.

Fate cried.

******Caliburn Initiative******

The two of them sat under a tree, not really doing anything, mostly because Fate insisted they just cuddle under the tree.

Alicia stirred in Fate's embrace as she peeked out from under her baby sister, "Fate-chan, it's going to rain. We have to go home!"

Fate bit her lip and smiled sadly, "I can't do that, Alicia…." At the smaller girl's inquiring look, Fate faltered, "I… I just want to sit out here a little longer."

The little blonde girl looked at the castle in the distance a little longingly before she puffed up with some self-perceived duty, "Then I'll wait here too! You're the little sister so I have to take care of you!" Humming a strange a little song to herself, Alicia plopped herself back down beside Fate.

This only made what Fate had to say even harder.

"I love you, Alicia-chan."

The small girl blinked in surprise, "I love Linith, Arf and Precia too… but Precia was never that kind to me." Once she started, it didn't stop much to Fate's thankfulness, "No matter how much I want it to be real, I know that it isn't. I don't want to leave but I know I have to."

"She was really kind…." Alicia murmured softly as she displayed a sudden awareness of the situation, "Because she was so kind, she broke."

"I'm sorry, Alicia," hot tears slowly leaked from her eyes, "I really want to stay. I want to love you, I want to love Precia."

"Do you have a family outside?" Alicia asked softly as the rain began falling around them, "Are they waiting?"

"They… They're very nice. There's Lindy, she's the mother who always cares about us. Chrono is the strange but reliable big brother and Naruto, our annoying little brother. They all care about me. Us."

"Do you think they would like me?" Alicia asked in a tiny voice.

Fate nodded with a small hiccup as she began crying at the small girl's question.

Alicia dug around in her little white dress and pulled out smething tightly clasped in her little palm. Hesitantly, she held the small topaz triangle to Fate, "You have to help them right?"

Fate nodded once, before she engulfed her older sister in a tight hug. Alicia gave her the most loving smile Fate had ever seen before she dissolved into a burst of golden dust, "Take care, Fate."

Fate began walking towards the castle, feeling a little thankful for the heavy rain.

Though she never knew rain was salty.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"My master…. I am sorry. This broken program couldn't even fulfil your last wish before it was too late." The voice echoed around her, it was strangely warped.

The world around them shook violently, _"The pain of someone who can't even bring herself to try to defy her programming before giving up is pathetic."_

Hayate looked around them before she glanced at the broken woman on her lap.

"He is not a very nice person is he…." Hayate noted softly, "But he has a point. Do you want to fight it?"

The sadness of being unable to live the way you want….

"Why would you want to help the very thing that is corroding your body? Taking away your health and slowly killing you?"

"Did you want to?"

No matter how injured she was, the beautiful woman straightened up with an indignant expression, "Never!"

"Then…. that is reason enough."

"Do you…. Do you think I can really fight back?" There was a sad hope in her question.

"If you can't…. no you can. Even so, you are not alone anymore. I am your Master. Everything you have done, I will bear it all _because _I am your Master. I will fight with you." She gathered the woman into her weak, frail arms, "I understand a little, a little glimpse of everything all of you have been through."

"I'll give you a name, a name of one who supports others with strength, the tailwind of fortune and the blessed air, I won't let you your name be cursed anymore. From now on… your name will be…." Hayate's weak voice grew louder and louder as she cradled the injured woman to her chest.

The silver haired woman felt hot tears splash down on her, but she couldn't tell if they were hers or her Master's, "Reinforce."

She felt warmth flood her body.

"Reinforce has been registered as a new name for this unit." An ethereal voice echoed around and within Hayate, "Administration is now possible… however, with this, I can no longer restrain the program. The power that was separated from me will be in full possession of its facilities as it begins to rampage shortly."

Hayate grinned, "Don't worry, we'll do something about it."

******Caliburn Initiative******

Fate felt Bardiche's Device form, reassuringly heavy in her grasp as she stood in the middle of the reception hall.

As far as they could tell, there was no visible way out from the labyrinthine halls of the Garden of Time.

Staff form retracted into a reliably sturdy hilt and the cross guard formed with a flash. Fate gave one last resigned heave and the hilt began glowing with power.

**[Zanber Form.]**

"Shippu Jinrai!" She lifted the lightning sword high above her head as bolts and tendrils of violent static swirled around her and Bardiche Assault as they attacked the force field.

Fate frowned as her attack failed to pierce whatever was keeping her in here.

Pouring even more power into the glowing sword, Fate glared at the wall, "Sprite Zanber!"

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Yasuharu Takanashi - My Name**

Nanoha and Signum blinked in surprise while Naruto coughed and spat out some blood as he pulled his own hand out of his chest with a disgusting crunch of bone and blood.

The scream had come from his own lips as the hand that had been crushing the silver haired woman's neck let her go before it abruptly formed a translucent blade of wind that it used to shear off his other arm with a spray of blood.

The destructive orb instantly dissipated as the lopped off limb fell out of the sky.

The blonde breathed shakily while his rogue limb tore at his own face, "What are you doing you idiot?! I can solve everything for you! Just let me be a little longer and we can be together again!"

"…**. I'm sorry for leaning on you for so long; you were my only friend for years in that dark hole…. But I don't need you to solve anything anymore. I made those mistakes and I'll pay for them in my own way, that's my Shinobi way! NOW GIMME THAT STEERING WHEEL!"** the words tore themselves from his lips in a reassuringly belligerent and sarcastic tone compared to the monotone he had been using up till now.

"**Thank you, for being there for me."**

The one armed blonde only grunted to himself before he went limp in mid-air for a while. For one frightening moment, Nanoha thought that the blonde had killed himself when the limp body sudden began to spasm violently before he abruptly straightened up again.

He nonchalantly flashed a cocky smirk at the two dumbfounded females with a lazy wave of the hand.

"Yo. I'm back."

Nanoha smiled.

There was no anger, no resentment, no grudges held for the painful bruise on her cheek, no nothing.

The nine year old just smiled like she had always believed he would find his way back, "What took you so long?"

"I got lost in this really trippy place with a lot of rainbows when somebody saw fit to break my face." Naruto snarked gently before his lips curled downwards, "I'm sorry."

"We'll talk about this later."

The blonde silently nodded as he clutched at the stump of his left arm uncomfortably. A strange crimson aura began to bleed from the open wound as his arm reconstructed itself from pure energy, steam and blood, though the process looked anything but pleasant if the 19 year old's sweaty face was any indication.

Signum raised one eyebrow. She had always thought he had been exaggerating. Turns out he _really _could regenerate.

"You're just like a cockroach. Unbelievably hard to kill. Do you know that?"

"I don't mind teaching you how to do it. It's really quite simple, just catch a demi god, preferably one that you won't catch licking his balls every morning when you wake up, and stuff it in your guts. Voila, walking tank." The blonde shot back with a strained smile as the gaping wounds in his abdomen began filling up at a ridiculous speed.

The ranting in his head was totally worth it.

In front of the two of them, the blonde man lifted his hand, displaying the gleaming black bracelet on his right wrist, "Caliburn… I have to apologize to you as well. I could hear you calling, but I couldn't answer. I know how paltry my words are right now, but thank you…. and sorry."

**[….. Your Orders, Master.]**

"Caliburn. Set up." The bracelet shone with an internal light, a warm golden that erupted and enveloped the young warrior.

When the light died down, the blonde stood there in his Barrier Jacket. A customized navy blue uniform while his battered, blood soaked cloak was replaced by a pure white one that flapped around his shoulders, warm golden thread decorated it's edges, lending it a certain regal air.

The bracelet on his right wrist had morphed into a pair of simple metallic black bracers emblazoned with deep orange carvings more suited for combat.

Lights burst up from behind him as a familiar looking person dressed in a black Barrier Jacket with a red cape whipping around her stepped out of the light; bright yellow tressed flowed behind her as she smiled affectionately at the three of them before she realized that the her adopted brother had had a rather sudden growth spurt.

"Glad to see you could make it."

She gave him a strange look.

"You don't look like a fox puppy anymore…."

"You just lost your Nee-chan privileges. No presents for you until you turn twelve." Naruto commented flatly as a familiar figure burst out of the sea water. Water began evaporating from the Book's body in big plumes of steam as her body rapidly repaired itself.

As all four of them tensed, Signum narrowed her eyes at her creator, "Something's wrong with her."

The silver haired woman moved in mechanical jerks as if a cog had been jammed inside of her. Her clear red eyes flashed intermittently as she struggled to move and begin attacking again once her body had completely healed.

"Translation for the idiot?" Naruto asked with a plaintive smile.

"_Ummm… the ones outside…. The ones from the Bureau!"_ all of them shared a look at the Kansai accent as Signum lit up with clear joy at her Master's voice, "Hayate-sama!"

_"Si-Signum? You're okay?"_

"I'm outside with the Mages from the Bureau." The rose haired woman nodded with clear tears running down her cheeks, "We've been trying to reach you for so long and stop the Book of Darkness from rampaging. Hayate-sama, are you alright?"

The voice echoing in their minds hesitated, _"I-Is the bad man gone?"_

"For a certain definition of gone." Naruto noted dryly when the three females looked at him, "Can you stop The Book of Darkness from going berserk?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun but I can't do that…." Hayate paused briefly before she continued again, "I know that this is not the best time, but could I ask you're a favour? Can you please do your best to stop her?"

Naruto shrugged and nudged Nanoha, "I'm just the flunky, I can't promise anything."

"Nanoha-chan… please." Hayate pleaded softly, "I've taken away the control from Reinforce, but I can't use my administrative powers the way she is now, this should give you enough time to stop her from causing any more damage.

"What should we do? If Hayate has some control over her, I don't want to hurt her." Nanoha cried out as the four of them scattered. High above them, the automatic defence program had begun to slowly but surely regain control as several groups of clawed tentacles burst out from the sea to support her.

"_Just hit her!" _

Naruto blinked, "Yuuno? Is that you? Did you ever get down here? Incidentally, can this wait? I'm a little busy trying to dodge beams of destructions from little Ms-I'm-Floating-With-A-Miniskirt-so-I-Can-Show-Off -My-Nice-Legs up there."

"_With that kind of description, I'm actually surprised that you have yet to find out what colour her panties are." _Yuuno commented dryly.

"Wait, let me check..."

"_That was a joke, you don't serio-"_

"White and blue tripes….." There was an uncomfortable radio silence as Naruto mused to himself, "Huh... I was kinda expecting something black or even purple with the '_I'm going to destroy everything_' vibe she has going..."

"_...thud...thud...thud..."_ Naruto got the impression that Amy who had probably been eavesdropping or something, was banging her head on the nearest wall if the sounds being communicated over the spell array was any indication.

"Oops." The blonde suddenly had to dodge in a hurry as the barrage aimed at him in particular suddenly seemed to triple in size and speed, "I think she might be a little upset."

"_Woohooo! Kill him! I'm rooting for you, Miss Book of Darkness!" _

"_Amy, get off the line!"_

Naruto coughed politely as he awkwardly flew around the whipping vines, the other guy made it seem so easy somehow, "You mind telling me what that something important was before I get creamed?"

"_We're rushing in your direction now but I've more or less heard everything. Just hit her with everything you've got, there has never been a case of a conscious administrator during its True Awakening. If we can jar the Book of Darkness enough for Hayate-san to reassert control, we might be able to help her get free or just stop the whole thing entirely!" _

"Nanoha, Signum, Fate, you heard him!"

He didn't even receive a single word of response as Nanoha, very enthusiastically, accepted the order. A bright spell circle came to life beneath the auburn haired girl while Raising Heart began humming with power again as it rapidly began ejecting shell after shell, "Excelion Buster, Barrel Expansion for Midrange Firing!"

Above her, a yellow bolt of lightning made itself known as Fate sped through the skies, wielding an abnormally large sword made of energy. Whirling it above her head, she suddenly changed directions and surged towards The Book of Darkness, the blade's keen edge making a loud whistling noise against the wind, "Sprite…."

Beneath the Book of Darkness, waves of energy began expanding from Signum, rippling the surface of the sea, "Laevantein, Cartridge Load." She intonated quietly as the noticeably excited Device flared up with crimson flames.

Naruto actually kind of pitied the silver haired woman but he had his own job to do. Holding his palms slightly apart from each other, tendrils of blue energy began shooting back and forth between his palms. A tiny orb of super compressed chakra, spinning fiercely, began forming in the small gap between two palms.

"Uzumaki Jutsu: Ou Tatsumaki!"

He allowed his control over a fixed point of the orb to lapse, causing a torrent of super powered chakra to gush out like a condensed whirlpool that struck the target like a tsunami that caught the silver haired woman in the eye of the storm before he flicked his wrist like a whip. The great whirlpool billowing out of his hands undulated much like an oversized whip before a tiny fleck was violently thrown out of the other end, sending her straight towards Fate.

"Sprite Zanber!" Her blade's brightness went up a notch as she sliced it up and down, breaking her target's protections and cutting deep into her flesh when a flow of fire surging up from below caught her falling body, hidden amongst the flames were Laevantein's blade links as they swirled around her.

Signum flicked her wrist once, and the terrible attack converged onto her.

"Breaaak SHOOOOT!" a brilliant pink ray of light engulfed everything.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Hayate smiled gladly as she felt her authority over the book returning to her.

Three orbs of coloured light began circling around her, "Return Linker Core, rebuild Guardian Knight System." Hayate issued command after command as she materialized in mid-air above the large, black blob with Reinforce in Stand By mode safely held in her arms.

"Come to me, my Knights." The woman said softly, a massive platform made out of a white triangular array revolved beneath them slowly as the Knights were slowly reconstructed according to the Mistress of the Night Sky's wishes.

Naruto let himself breath a quiet sigh of relief as he clapped on hand on Signum's smudged and damaged shoulder pauldron.

The two of them roughly the same height now, allowing him to at least look her in the eye, "I do believe you're being summoned."

Signum gave him a sincere smile, "Thanks."

He watched the Knight of the Sword join the other Wolkenritters, just standing on the platform, he could see the immense amount of magic flowing out of Hayate slowly heal and repair Signum. She stood tall and strong, renewed, "We are the guardian Knights who gather before our Mistress, she of the Night Sky." Her voice rang loud and clear in her customary formal speech.

Beside her, the Knight of the Lake, Shamal spoke up, her soft, motherly voice echoed strongly, "As long as our mistress exists, our souls will never extinguish.

Zafira's voice came next, deep and clear, "As long as we have life in our bodies, we will stand by each other."

Vita, Knight of the Iron Hammer's voice rang out clear and strong, "We will always exist before our mistress, Queen of the Night Sky, Yagami Hayate."

"Reinforce…. Bestow upon my armour and staff."

******Caliburn Initiative******

Naruto sighed with a deep sense of relief at the sight of Hayate and her Knights together again when he felt his spine finally turn to jelly as everything seemed to catch up to the blonde at once. Relax just a little, and bam.

Without a word, he allowed himself to lazily fall from the sky.

He'd worry about the concussion later as a dim glow enveloped his body.

When the light bled away from him, he found himself back in his nine year old form and utterly depleted.

And just as he was about to hit the ground, he heard a feminine yelp as somebody caught his arm, shortly before another girl grabbed his other sleeve in order to slow his descent, "Oh Kami, you need to go on a diet."

Naruto grunted in amusement, "Says the one who stuffs her face with cakes on a regular basis. On a more serious note, how are they doing?"

"At least you're nine again. It was really weird looking at you like an adult." Nanoha muttered to herself before she and Fate shared a smile as they slowly lowered him to the ground, "They're fine. Just a little overwhelmed after everything that has happened I think."

"Good." The blonde grunted quietly as he glanced at the big dome of purple miasma roiling just in the background, the reforming remains of the Automatic Defence Program.

"Do you want to join them?"

Naruto averted his eyes and both of them heard the guilt in his mutter, "I… don't think so."

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Hayate-chan. I like the hair, white suits you." Naruto commented dryly while he kept one eye on a hissing Vita.

If he didn't know any better, he'd think she didn't like him.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun." The two of them greeted each other formally, before the Mistress of the Night Sky smirked at the blonde who happened to be dangling from between Fate and Nanoha like a misbehaving fox pup as she stroked Vita's hair to calm her down, "You look like you're enjoying yourself."

"Your definition of enjoyment needs some tweaking. As in whack it with a hammer kind of tweaking."

"Before we do any tweaking…." She bowed to the three TSAB Mages, "I'm sorry for everything my children has put you through." Placing a palm on all their heads, she forced the disgruntled Knights to bow as well, "They've caused a lot of trouble for everyone."

Nanoha chewed on her bottom lip as she dropped the blonde onto the platform of solid light like a rock, "No… we must take a share of the blame as well. Will you forgive us?"

"Thank you… Nanoha-chan." The cream haired girl said softly, "I do understand that it won't solve everything but at least it's a start. For now…." She glanced at the dome made out of purple miasma, "We have to deal with this naughty child first."

The Knights slowly looked around while Nanoha sheepishly scuffed her foot, "All we're good for is really big explosions. Do those work?" Vita asked plaintitively, obviously speaking for her fellow Knights and Nanoha.

Zafira nodded stoically, "We're not too knowledgeable about when it goes berserk either."

"Uhmm…." Shamal flushed as everyone looked at her, "I-I don't think it will work. Without the Tome of the Night Sky directly controlling it, the Berserk program is essentially a mass of magic without a purpose other than releasing that magic until it runs out. Freezing it wouldn't do anything as long as the core is intact…. The reincarnation cycle will just keep continuing."

"Before that, we have a bigger problem. The L'Arc-en-Ciel was activated. Right now, we can't use the targeting system, so it's going to fire at a point above Uminari City's airspace."

"Run where? If something of that power hits any point on Earth, we'd all be dead anyway." The blonde frowned and calmly responded as he flexed his right fist, "I'm starting to get a little annoyed by how everyone tells me to run anyway."

"….. The Arthra's in outer orbit isn't it? We could try and pool all our teleportation magic together and send it into the atmosphere to intercept the L'arc-en-ciel…. Somewhere where the explosion won't harm Earth or the Arthra." Yuuno pointed out doubtfully.

"_I'm not worried about the Arthra, we can get it repaired,_" Chrono replied urgently, _"But is doing what Yuuno said possible?"_

"….As long as we can strip away all the barriers and physical protection first then I don't see why not." Signum quietly remarked, "I've seen some of the blue prints for it. Even if it doesn't completely destroy the core, it should damage it long enough for us to think of another way."

"Gaah!" Arf moaned as she felt her brain overheating, "Why can't we just beat that thing up until it shows its core?!"

Naruto winked at Arf, "It's the only plan we've got, so we might as well go for it."

"_What are you talking about?" _

"Long story short, we're going to shove it into Arthra's canon hole."

"What?" Everyone echoed incredulously.

"Chrono, send us the coordinates of the safest point for the collision. You're about to have a date with a very nice… thing." Naruto reaffirmed, "We'll break down its barriers and the teleporters will send it up the moment its core shows itself."

All of them shared a look, before they invariably shrugged, it was a good a plan as any, and all they needed to do was go all out. As far as most of them were concerned, it was like getting paid to do something they like.

The Arthra's Enforcer nodded, "We're going to begin calculations and move the ship as far away as possible. The coordinates will arrive in 15 minutes at latest. Proceed as planned. Chrono, out."

Pulling back, he collapsed into his chair with a sigh, "Did you see that, Graham? Not only was your Durandal plan completely pointless, every single one of them are willing to risk life and limb, for someone who didn't exist, for something that you classify as nothing more than a program. Do you know what's the difference between this Book of Darkness and the ones you encountered before?" Chrono asked the old man.

When the old man refused to answer, Chrono smiled faintly, "They have some really good friends."

Naruto meditated in mid-air; gathering up as much strength as possible with the 15 minutes that Hayate and the Tome of the Night Sky had apparently bought for them. Fate and Nanoha floated beside him, both of them were doing their own preparations.

"You think it'll work?" Nanoha asked as she absent minded rubbed at the bruise on her cheek.

"Not sure if it'll work, but I know it'll definitely hurt."

"Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan, Naruto-kun!" the three of them regarded the person calling them with a questioning look, "What's wrong, Hayate-chan?"

"The three of you have been fighting for a while now haven't you?" She looked at Shamal pleadingly, "Can you heal them?"

The motherly blonde smiled sweetly, "Of course." She lifted the gold bands on her two fingers to her lips and brushed them gently, "Klarer Wind, it's time to do what you do best."

A soft breeze blew around the woman in the green dress as a healing breath flowed over the three of them, closing up wounds and regenerating their stamina.

"Shamal-san! That was wonderful!"

"Tsk, just a little bit more." Naruto muttered to himself as Fate and Nanoha thanked the sweet woman.

Right beside him, Hayate made some mental notes under her breath, "Gaah, I should have made the skirt a little shorter. Would have been so much more attractive than that long pointless skirt if it showed just a little more…."

The two of them blinked as they registered what the other had said. Slowly they turned to look at each other.

"You think so too?" Hayate and Naruto said simultaneously with identical grins on their faces. Mock saluting, they shook hands firmly.

Instant best friends.

"KYAAAAAH!"

"Ah…. Idiots…."

"Yeah…. idiots."

"Why am I helping her again?" Shamal wondered to herself as the black dome beneath them burst open to reveal a vaguely insectoid beast with the upper body of a wailing woman attached to the forehead of the insectoid.

Vita looked like she was going to start sobbing, "Because she's our Master. Our Master who happens to like stuffing me in a bunny costume." She glared at Nanoha and Fate who were staring at her with complicated, almost pitying, expressions, "Stop looking at me like that! I don't need your half assed sympathy! Waaaa!"

"Vita! Wait up, we're supposed to attack togeetthheeer!" Nanoha called out somewhat lamely.

The two mages sweat dropped as Vita began wailing away on the berserk program with tears and snot running down her face, "Die Darkness of the Book of Darkness! Waaaa!"

"Darkness of the book of…. Darkness?" the blonde man stood there and stared at them with a weird look on his whiskered face, "Who was the genius that came up with** that** mouthful?"

"That's the corrupted program in Reinforce, the so called cursed part of her that was causing her to do all sorts of terrible thing-"

**Play TTGL OST – Happily Ever After **

"OI, DEAD MEAT ON LEGS!" Fate's helpful explanation was cut off by Naruto shaking a fist in the half spider, half woman, half something abominable's direction before he turned back to her with a dry look, "See? Much easier. It even feels so much nicer to say and it has four words in it if you happen to be picky." The blonde deadpanned.

"We'll be your support for this battle, Fate-chan!" Arf called out as she began casting a spell, "Chain BIND!" Green chains of light burst forth from the array that

"Don't worry and just give it everything you have while we stop those tentacles on the front line," Yuuno yelled out equally loudly as he cast a Struggle Bind. Green chains hurled themselves at the thick worm like tentacles sprouting around the spider woman, squeezing their thick juicy hides painfully.

Zafira crossed his hands, "Restrict, Steel Yoke!"

The feminine thing atop the beats wailed even louder as the tentacles were cut off by the three support mages in large chunks.

Vita hefted Graf Eisen as she began gathering magic, "You're timing better match mine, Takamachi Nanoha!" She called belligerently as the two of them reached operational height, "I am Vita, the Iron Hammer Knight of the Iron Count, Graf Eisen, there is nothing I cannot break," Graf Eisen chambered a cartridge and ejected the spent shell in sync with his Mage, **[Gigant Form.]**

Graf Eisen's head immediately began bloating to the size of a football field while his owner swung him around almost effortlessly despite her less than stellar size, "GIGANT CRUSHER!"

The massive hammer's head dropped down like a comet and crashed into a pink barrier of light, cracking it heavily but not shattering it.

Directly behind Vita, Nanoha twirled Raising Heart around and aimed at the weakest point of the web shaped fracture, "Takamachi Nanoha, Rasing Heart Excelion, Zenryoku Zentai!"

**[Load Cartridge. ]** Raising Heart began rapidly chambering shell after shell, as much stress as it's exhaust rods and frame could handle, "Excelion Buster!" a surge of clear wind collided with the creature, "Break SHOOT!"

The spider-like beast thrashed around as several rays of pink destructions struck its front, shattering the first of four layers.

"Signum, Testarossa-san, it's your turn!" Shamal yelled out loudly.

Naruto watched with a frown as the two speedy fighters began using their strongest attacks.

"What weapons do I have to work with here?" Naruto asked his Device curiously.

**[Hyper Molecular Separator.]**

Naruto grinned happily, "I have no idea what that means, but it sounds awesome. Activate Hyper Molecular Separator!"

A simmering, half transparent blade materialized out of thin air, extending about half a foot from his wrist.

Naruto stared at his half foot long blade dumbly. Then he squinted at Fate's kilometre long Zeus Zanber.

Waving the glowing blade around limply, the blonde gestured at the 4 storey tall black monstrosity with an angry jab of his new shiny blade, "You can't seriously expect me to go up against **that **with a **can opener**, can you?" Naruto spluttered at his Device incredulously, "I might as well go and shake my shrunken penis at it and hope it kills itself from envy!"

Fate coughed politely from beside him, "Just in case you've forgotten, you are currently surrounded by a group of highly trained females wielding some rather sharp and/or dangerous implements. Are you** really** sure you want to talk about shaking certain things right now?" she shot a pointed look at her adopted brother who currently looked like he couldn't decide whether to he should start throwing a tantrum or mope in a corner.

"When I find out who made Caliburn, I'm going to hyper molecular separator his limbs. That'll teach him to vent his impotence issues on me." He grumbled to himself as he decided to just get on with it, "How many spells do we have stored, Caliburn?"

**[Current Storage is Limited to Two Different Spells. Requesting Clearance for Battle Efficiency.]**

The blonde blinked, "Approved?"

**[Clearance Received. Entering Massacre Form.]**

The bracers morphed again, shifting into a pair of metal plated gloves along with a pair of strangely shaped barrels that looked like a cross between a miniature buckler with a forward facing bayonet attached to it on both arms.

The blonde flexed his palms as he tried to remember the trigger words, "Massacre Form, Load Slot One."

He felt the glove jerk as an abnormally large bullet was pushed into the slot.

**[Blutiger Dolch Loaded. Ready for Overdrive**.]

He crossed his arms, and began growling as he forced every bit of chakra he could muster towards the gloves.

The revolver barrel began spinning rapidly and steaming heavily as the blonde began running at a loping pace that gradually got faster and faster until he was barely a blur that collided with the huge Spider, the blow caused it to rise up a little from the force, when Naruto landed the second massively powerful blow_, "Overdrive, Bluttiger Kaizer!"_

The obscenely overpowered version of Reinforce's Bloody Dagger was nothing short of awe inspiring as building sized daggers formed out of air, to the point where one dagger was taller than the spider itself.

"Hayate-chan! Special Delivery!" Grunting, the blonde landed and began manipulating them with his hands, one by one, the immense swords began striking at the creature. Each time a blade hit the creature, the tower sized dagger exploded with enough force to send the blonde skidding against the ground through sheer air pressure while Dead Meat got higher and higher into the sky with each explosive strike. The blonde threw out his palm, and clenched it into a fist.

In the sky, the last three immense blades finished it off by skewering it through the abdomen and keeping it there instead of exploding.

Hanging in the air from the momentum of the explosions, Hayate, Nanoha and Fate began gearing up for the strongest attacks.

**[Starlight Breaker.] **Raising Heart began humming louder and louder as it absorbed the residual magic in the air around Nanoha, "Zenryoku Zentai," A powerful; aura began surrounding all three of them, each of them with their own signature colour, Starlight….."

"Raikou Issen," Fate spun her energy sword around with an expertise that belied her young age as she called down purple thunder from the Heavens. The thunder only added to the power of the Zanber, "Plasma Zanber…."

Hayate looked down the squealing creature as it rapidly regenerated in mid-air. After suffering the obscenely huge explosions from Bluttiger Kaizer, the spider had been mangled into nothing but a lump of flesh that quickly began regenerating into a chimera of various monsters the Knights had defeated before. Sadly, she lifted her golden staff into the air where it began to gather dark orbs of pure energy, "Resound, Horns of Judgement… Ragnarok.

A white triangular array appeared as three cream white orbs of energy gathered around its points.

On the ground, Naruto winced as the burning hot casing was ejected from the revolver bracelet along with a huge amount of steam.

Naruto nodded resolutely, "Let's go for broke. Load Slot Two."

**[….] **

You could almost feel Caliburn wanting to tell Naruto to stick it somewhere unpleasant.

**[….Startlight Breaker Loaded.] **Caliburn chambered the final bulletwith a resounding click**, [Ready for Overdrive.]**

"Hey, furball…. Ready for one last shot?" the blonde bit out as his muscles began screaming under the pressure.

"**You're body's gonna break you know." **Kyuubi pointed out uncaringly, **"You're more injured than that one time you fought Madara toe to toe." **

"So you don't want to?"

"**Hell yes I want to. I just thought it would be proper courtesy to remind you that you're about to become a paraplegic.**** Now let's show them how great I am." **The voice in his head paused**, "I'm almost starting to thank Minato for sticking me in you. It's beginning to seem like no matter where you go, you're going to step the most amusing shit without fail." **

The blonde could only smile at the grudging tone before heaving the mass of inky blackness into the air, feeding his energy to the roiling mass above the array.

Orbs of inky blackness, malevolent crimson, serene blue and shining gold began coalescing around the re-aged shinobi before melding into one enormous orb that dwarfed any Starlight Breaker that Nanoha had ever made.

"This is the weight of my mistakes. Can you bear it?"

"_**EARTH BREAKER!"**_

Naruto drew a deep breath and let it go; the resulting ray of light broke the sound barrier before ploughing into the Darkness' underside with a huge boom, accelerating the screeching amorphous blob's ascent into the air in a straight line. Just as suddenly, there was another massive explosion of sound and heat as the clouds were blown away by another wave of rainbow coloured destruction that hit the blob from above as the _Plasma Zanber Breaker_, the_ Ragnarok_ and the _Starlight Breaker_ collided with the aptly named Dead Meat.

Trapped between the four obscenely overpowered beams, the amorphous blob could only screech piteously, even without a mouth, as the two beams slowly began grinding away at its tough outer shell.

An exhausted Signum tapped her chin as they watched the destructive beam lance out into the sky in a myriad rainbow of gold, blue, black and red. The huge black mass that was the Darkness in the Tome of the Night Sky was literally disintegrating between the two opposing forces, barrier and all, with an ear rending screech.

"From what I've noticed, most modern magic have a lot of safe guards and redundancies to reduce lethality, ours only has one setting. Our skill is the only thing that determines whether we kill, or simply maim." She gestured at the blond who was breathing raggedly but kept up the assault with almost superhuman willpower, "The way he fights, it's almost Belkan isn't it?""

The most intellectually inclined member of their little group nodded slowly as she stared at the blonde with a new perspective, "Almost. If what I think is true, in a way, that boy is truly a living Lost Logia. Taking his direct manipulation of sheer amounts of magic and the hand signs he uses as clumsy and crude bio matrixes in place of basic spell patterns into account… I'd even go as far as to say it parallels early Alhazredian. Crude and primitive but stupidly effective at what it was meant to do. The youngest member of their group cocked her head at her, "Which is?"

"Wholesale Destruction."

"….What's that?"

Shamal sighed, "Blowing lots of stuff up."

"Ah, ok."

Nanoha simply rolled her eyes as she sat down on her rock comfortably, "Naruto, you done?" She called out tiredly.

Now all that was left was for the teleporters to send it into outer space and let the TSAB deal with it.

"I'm so… satisfied." Moaning, Naruto toppled over onto his back and yawned in satisfaction after a good day's long work.

Then he noticed something extremely wrong with the sky.

"Nanoha?"

"What?"

"Do you have… uh... bandages?"

"Yeah, you want one?" Nanoha noticed that Caliburn was cursing him again.

"I do if they come in Uber Jumbo size."

The auburn haired girl whose pigtails had been undone in the explosion cocked her head at him in confusion, "Uber what now?"

The silent blonde boy looked at Nanoha with a noticeably pinched expression on his face before gesturing at the moon hanging in the sky, "I think I uh…. Went a** little** overboard."

"Define** little**."

"Nine Tails of concentrated power with a Starlight Breaker is a bad idea." He laughed nervously, "Who would've known."

"Nope… don't get it. Nine tails? As in you have Tails?"

Naruto who looked like he was currently suffering from constipation, indigestion and an enema all at the same time simply motioned at the moon.

The silver pale orb that hung in the sky was currently proudly showing off its most recent addition to its collection of craters.

A nice, perfectly spherical hole that pierced it completely, showing a nice round patch of starry sky beyond its gleaming surface.

"Do you uh… think the TSAB has anything that can fix that before the gravity goes wonky?"

Nanoha stared at the moon.

Then she stared some more.

Then she cracked.

The nine year old began giggling uncontrollably and she pumped her fist despite her tiredness, "Yesss!" She began dancing a strange little jig, "I'm not the one that has to be scolded for excessive property damage this time! Woohoo!"

She smirked at him victoriously, "Have fun writing THIS report, you're the one that blew a hole in the moon, YOU deal with it."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**The Night before Christmas. **

**Play Sambomaster – Seishun Kyousou Kyoku**

"Come in, come in." Naruto said into the comm line as it lit up, signalling someone's presence outside his room.

The door to his quarters opened as the silver haired woman walked in with a slightly nervous twitch. She kept her gaze set squarely on the blonde sitting at his desk, legs crossed as he read through some documents. His eyes were drawn and red shot, as though he had been unable to get any sleep in since their battle a few hours ago.

He looked surprisingly professional for some reason. Or maybe it was the ridiculous pile of documents stacked on his desk, most of which she noticed, required his signature.

"I'm sorry for calling you so late at night," Naruto said with an apologetic smile, "But I was asked to debrief everyone. Please. Sit down." Naruto gestured to the chair in front of him politely.

Silently, Reinforce gracefully slid into the seat and kept her face carefully blank.

"...I've heard that you plan on self-terminating."

The woman nodded slowly, "Although the defence program was stopped, the damage was too much. The underlying structure is completely warped to the point where I couldn't fix it even if I knew what the original program looked like. As sure as time passes, the Defence Program will repair itself, slowly corroding my consciousness before it goes berserk once more."

"So… Dead Meat on Legs can come back?" Naruto asked with one raised eyebrow.

The silver haired woman gave the blonde an uncomfortable look, memories of him breaking her bones with a mad smile were still very fresh in her memories, "You…. could put it that way."

"And the Knights? You would tear them away from Hayate-chan?" Naruto questioned quietly as he poured Reinforce a cup of tea.

"…. The only one to go will be me. They have already been separated from my files as a standalone program. They will keep Hayate safe, only the administration program itself will disappear with a smile, knowing that this way she can ensure her Master's safety. It will be for the best to do this now before the Defense Program quickly recompiles its files."

"I don't think I have any right to talk, especially not with what I did to you," The blonde who was chewing on a pen leaned back on his chair, "But did you know Reinforce? The more you trust them, the more you care for them, and the more power over yourself that person has, the more it hurts when they leave. You leaving will probably mean that she'll be safe. But she won't be happy, she'll probably cry every night." The blonde drawled, "I believe, that even if it meant danger, she would willingly stay by your side."

"…. My Master comes before all." Reinforce maintained firmly, "Her safety is my only concern."

The blonde stared at her shrugged with a helpless smile, "If you're that resolved, there's nothing I can say to you that will change that." Naruto nodded, "That's all I need from you for the after mission debrief. Please have a good night's rest. I am sure you have a lot to think about."

The silver haired woman gave him one last curious look before she quietly left his chamber.

She really didn't get him. He tried to so hard to persuade her, only to just let leave like it didn't concern him.

******Caliburn Initiative******

Reinforce stood at the centre of a ritual array laid out on the snow covered ground. She seemed incomparably calm in contrast with her Knights and the two Mages who were helping her with the ritual.

"I am ready."

Signum looked around with one raised eyebrow, "Where's that irritating idiot? I would have thought he wouldn't want to miss this."

"He wanted to stay with Hayate-chan." Vita mumbled tensely…. Only for her to be proven immediately wrong by a blonde waving at her jauntily as he crested the hill with a wheel chair in front of him.

Almost everyone blanched at the metaphoric storm cloud floating above the scowling girl in aforementioned wheel chair.

"Yo."

"Well…. He's still with Hayate, so that probably counts, doesn't it?" Vita muttered dubiously while Signum face palmed.

The two of them stopped at the very edge of the triangle array, allowing Naruto a prime seat to watch the show.

"What are you doing, Naruto-kun?" Fate asked worriedly, "You were supposed to keep Hayate in the hospital."

The former shinobi shrugged dispassionately, "Well… she asked me where everyone was... and you know how I just can't say no that accent of hers. It's just so… huggable."

The brown haired girl smiled sweetly before speaking in her Kansai accent that the blonde supposedly couldn't resist, "Thanks much, Naruto-chan, I'll have to reward you soon." She turned around to glare at her nervous Knights and a surprisingly calm Reinforce as if she had expected it, "Why didn't anyone tell me what you were planning? Didn't anyone trust me?" She asked weakly, the strength in her voice faltered a little when the blonde behind her clasped her shoulder and squeezed gently.

Hayate breathed deeply and took strength from the blonde, "Well?" She thundered.

"We…." Signum hesitated but Hayate's steely glare prompted the swordswoman to spit it out, "didn't want to see you suffer…"

"And I wouldn't have suffered if Reinforce committed suicide?" She asked penetratingly, "Even voluntarily?" Her eyes pierced the grimacing Reinforce, "Did nothing I say get through to you?! I promised that we'd share this burden."

"You will get hurt if I remain, Master…. As long as I exist, the Defence Program will keep rebuilding itself. This is the only chance that we have, as a magical tome whose foremost duty is ensuring her Master's wellbeing, please let me choose the most efficient way of protecting you." Reinforce defended her choice with a quiet strength while Fate and Nanoha both looked markedly uncertain.

Something that Naruto noticed with another smirk as he launched the next part of his plan as Hayate fell silent.

"Are we all done moping?" He chirped loudly, prompting every one there to glare at him.

A cold blue gaze landed on Reinforce, "You can tell when the Defense Program is waking up can't you?"

Reinforce nodded slowly, "It is certainly something I could not fail to notice."

"And like Hayate has already proved, she has absolutely no problems separating you from it temporarily with some help from yours truly." He bowed in a mockingly casual manner, "So we find some deserted planet….. preferably one without a moon this time," He added sheepishly, "And let Dead Meat flail around a bit before we…. Exterminate it."

"I will not allow that, there is a chance that we might fail!"

Naruto gave her a dry look as he looked around the clearing, "I count three, THREE," He emphasized the number with a jab, "AAA ranked Mages right here, right now. Not including myself and Hayate. Are you saying that all three of them can't do anything with you and us helping them?"

"…." Reinforce who was clearly trying to think up an argument was left dumbfounded as Nanoha and Fate shared a look, "And… you didn't suggest this earlier because?" Nanoha asked as she shot him a fierce look.

The blonde smirked lazily, "It was fun watching all of you mope. I even got a few pictures of Signum crying in the ladies room."

He blanched comically, "Ah…. Wasn't supposed to say that just yet."

Reinforce stared blankly as Nanoha and Signum began pounding the unfortunate blonde into the ground amidst yells of pervert and _"Why were you in the LADIES ROOM!?"_

Even Fate refrained from helping him, electing to give him an exasperated look.

Nanoha finally sighed tiredly as let the bruised blonde drop to the ground with a pained yelp, "Let's just go home."She said tiredly, she had barely squeezed in a few hours of sleep when Reinforce had contacted her. She just didn't have the energy to deal with all the emotion.

"Yeah, let's all do that."

"What… just happened?" Reinforce asked her Knights with a completely confused expression.

"They basically offered to shoot you in the face if you ever feel like going berserk again." Vita observed in a blasé tone, "Now that it's settled, let's go home as well." She shivered, "It's freezing out here."

One by one they left, leaving a confused Reinforce standing there alone in the snow save a lump of blonde idiot lying face down in the snow.

A crimson gaze landed on said lump of idiot, "What happened?" she repeated her question again with a pleading note hidden deep with the monotone.

the head of yellow hair perked up so Naruto could smirk at the woman. He silently thought over her question before he decided to help her, if only because she looked like she was about burst into tears from confusion.

Tempting but no dice. He would've liked to see her cry, but he didn't want to be the reason for her tears, no matter how hypocritical _that _sounded.

"You see, it's not really that hard to figure people out." He stood up and dusted off his pants, "**No one wants you to leave**. Period. As long as someone can give them a reasonable enough argument not to go through with this, it is good enough for them, even if it was bull shit," Naruto cut her off before she could seize the opportunity, "Fortunately for them, it wasn't a lie."

He nodded, "Humans are funny that way. We understand logic but sometimes logic can just go forth and multiply with itself you know."

"I thought we agreed that nothing you could say would change my mind."

"Nothing I could say to you. I never said anything about not asking Hayate the same question. Turns out, she wasn't very pleased about being treated like a caged bird."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked quietly.

The assassin seemed to suddenly sober up and he heaved a quiet sigh as he looked up into the grey snowing skies, "Atonement? Shits and giggles? I don't know. What I do know is that I've made more than enough mistakes. If you don't want to be happy, I'll simply force you to be happy because I'm a selfish bastard like that."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**25****th**** December 0065. **

**Caliburn Initiative First Log; Designated user identified and Locked in. **

**Advanced Biometric Security Activated. **

**High Council Data Collection of Subject N.U. Initiated. **

…**..**

…**..**

…**.**

**Prologue End. **

…**.**

…**.**

…

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Special Preview **

Hayate grunted as she entered a dirty looking bar in a part of Mid-Childa that was dingy enough to make Vita blow a vein if she knew. The two of them had never gotten along with each other for some reason.

An old but serviceable sign hung above the old doorway the brown haired woman had just entered; _'The Round Table.'_

Heels clicking on the wooden floor, the TSAB officer glanced around at the nearly empty bar before taking a seat at the counter and idly ran one finger along the fine grain of the wooden counter which had been polished until it almost gleamed. Unlike its dirty and shabby looking exterior, the inside of the small bar was surprisingly clean and homey albeit a little gloomy, owing to the dark mahogany fittings, a rarity on modern Mid-Childa.

"The usual please." She ordered curtly.

The bartender quirked one indignant eyebrow at her tone before pulling out a glass from the fridge behind him and smoothly slid it over to her with one practiced gesture.

The brown haired woman smiled as she sipped from the frosted glass, "You already knew I was coming?"

One brown eye drifted over to the blonde bartender who was rubbing at the light stubble covering his angular jawline in a slightly embarassed manner, "I had a feeling." The man admitted, "Fate was rather fidgety all of last night. Which meant that she wanted to ask for a favour but was too embarrassed to do it."

"In other words, you figured I'd be the one she sent to do her dirty work." Hayate concluded with a half-smile.

The bartender fidgeted with his vest with an uncomfortable look on his face, "If only because you have no sense of decency whatsoever."

Hayate smirked, "You mean you just can't say no to my accent don't you?"

Behind her, a customer laughed in a bark like manner at her jab, causing the blonde to glare at him in a disgruntled manner before shooting a grinning Hayate another look, "Just state your case and leave."

The bartender's gruff tone did nothing to dissuade her, mostly because she knew that it was simply in his nature rather than actually disapproving of the idea, "I want to form a new quick response squadron-"

"No deal. I'm retired." That bartender replied curtly as he lightly rubbed his stubble again, a habitual tick he had developed sometime in his teenage years.

"Debatable. Where I come from placing a bag of dog shit on your superior's desk doesn't usually constitute a resignation letter, just a lawsuit. As far as I can tell, you're not actually off the force. Carim-san and Midget-sama like you too much." Hayate pointed out coyly, "But I'm not here to argue semantics. I don't actually need you to join us on the battlefield, just provide some technical support…."

"You don't use formal terms like that unless you're nervous." The rugged looking bartender observed coolly, "Have a little more confidence in your own idea will you?"

"Well… I know Nanoha and Fate would feel a lot better about it if you were watching our backs since things could get a little ugly…." Hayate trailed off with a deliberate look at the gruff blonde.

"And that's what we're here for." The bartender finished with a wry grin as he stretched lazily, the motion pulling back his sleeves to reveal a pair of glinting black bracelets on his wrists, "When everyone is looking to the right, it's our job to look to the left. Isn't that right, GUYS!?"

All around the bar, the unassuming customers she hadn't even given noticed at first roared back happily as they stood up. One by one, their grungy, dirty uniforms that completely blended in with the surroundings came off to reveal a sharp black suit with grey shoulder pads and an orange insignia on their left breast.

Before long, several Mages stood in line, each of them toting gleaming Devices that were heavily customized.

Every single one of them was a dropout from the TSAB program for one reason or another; either lacking the drive or the skills to actually pass as one. The untidy looking bartender was arguably the only one who saw through their facades and gathered them and their unique skills to create a team of the best Mages to ever grace Mid-Childa.

It helped that every single one of them was also more or less insane.

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Morganna VS, did we meet your expectations? **

**Note from Kishi:** Writing Caliburn has been… interesting to say the least. I'm not sure why, but structurally, it's been a real challenge, maybe because I respect Nanoha as much as I do Naruto. As far as reviews are concerned, I can't say that I'm very worried. The rate of reviews is very low compared to all the other fandoms because Nanoha has been technically over for quite a while now, but we just love this fandom as a whole so we don't really mind since good Nanoha fics that don't exclusively focus on Fate and Nanoha alone are rather hard to come by.

We also really stretched out in this past three chapters; I think it's rather noticeable no? We've been trying to squash too much in the few chapters so far but since the other alternative was scrapping the whole thing and starting fresh just so that we can add little bits of dialogues and stuff to change the overall tone, we chose squashing.

At any rate we hope you will enjoy this update and wish all our Christian readers a blessed Easter. To those that aren't Christians, we hope you like eggs.

**Blutiger Kaizer – Bloody Emperor**


	9. Ninth Step: Information, Shadows, Death

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 9**

Ninth Step: Information, Shadows and Death

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

I officially have no idea what the true plot for Battle of Aces and Gears of Destiny are, and yes I've tried looking around the net, including animesuki.

We basically found jack. Aside from noting that nearly every named character has their own weak story plot amidst the battles (It's a fighting game, I wasn't really expecting deep but yeesh, what I **DID** find was sad.) and some characters coming from all over the timeline to battle some Dark Fragments, there is really nothing else before finally putting down something called the Unbreakable Dark.

Therefore, we'll only add a normal Original arc or two before we go into StrikerS, should we find out enough pertinent information on Battle of Aces and Gears of Destiny in the future however, we'll do a spinoff. I apologize knowing that I have disappointed many of you that were expecting the Materials and Vivio. I myself really wanted to put in Vivio before StrikerS, writing her and the Big Bad Four would have been fun. :\

**Soundtrack List **

KOKIA – Hontou no Oto

Haruka Tomatsu – Yume Sekai

******Caliburn Initiative******

Things after Christmas were strangely anti climatic and life very quickly returned to its former slow pace.

"You understand, Naruto? This is war!" Hideyoshi shouted with a strange conviction flaming in his eyes as he screamed at his fellow warriors, "We cannot afford to lose out to them! Our window of opportunity is limited to only ten minutes, if we fail… No, we cannot fail! The lives of those who have gone before us must not go to waste. May the Goddess of Victory smile on us in the face of oppression!"

The group of boys gathered around Hideyoshi roared with approval, "UWOHHHH!"

"Therefore…" He spun around with a large sincere smile, "Naruto-samaaaa….."

"Fuck no," the bewhiskered blonde instantly replied as he continued to read his book, studiously ignoring the ten pairs of eyes staring at him pitifully.

"Bu-but…. Where's your friendship, Naruto! All of us are depending on you; don't waste the sacrifice that our seniors suffered to bring us this information!"

"Rather, they're only depending on you to hide their stuff for them because our class is on the furthest end of the corridor and the last to be inspected isn't it?" He gave the box filled with some rather colourful items and books a pointed look, "I'm not the one that was dumb enough to get suckered into helping the seniors avoid punishment in exchange for some gravure magazines." Naruto pointed out with a sarcastic smirk.

"Some gravure magazines?" His classmate with the ponytail spluttered with a fanatic gleam in his eyes, "What are you talking about?! These are the legendary books that middle schoolers like us have never seen before! It's a world that men have to step into upon adulthood!" The brown haired boy shook his fist at the irritated blonde, "A sacred ritual! Just because you don't need it, doesn't mean you have your own harem doesn't mean you can look down on our tears of blood!"

"Why in the world would I have something like that?" Naruto refuted incredulously.

"What the hell are you talking about? You're the only one in class to have your own harem!"

Naruto looked vaguely disgusted as the brown haired boy made this disturbing little pirouette complete with dreamy expression, "Nanoha-chan; the cute girl next door type, Fate-chan; because incest is hot, Suzuki-chan, the soft spoken ojou-sama type and Arisa-chan, the high achieving foreigner, class rep type!"

"You've got so many dirty thoughts shoved up there, that your brains have completely rotted away hasn't it?"

"Wa-wait! What did I say wrong?! Everyone in class thinks so too!"

"…Die. Seriously just die."

It didn't even matter that he was physically 9 years old; his mind told him that he was 20 and that was that. No matter how low he was willing to go, 9 year old girls were so far outside his defensive range that the chances of him crushing on anyone of them was microscopic at best.

Besides, he liked older women.

"And while you're at it, take those nine idiots with you."

Before Hideyoshi could defend their life choice from Naruto's scathing remarks, another boy tapped him on the shoulder, "O-Oi, that's enough Hideyoshi! I can hear the teacher coming! We need to do something and fast."

"Kuu…. Let's just hide it as best we can first! May Kami grant us victory!"

Naruto simply rolled his eyes again as a group of chattering girls opened the door just in time for the boys to finish scrambling back to their seats with treasures liberally stuffed up any available crevices, followed by a strict looking teacher.

"Oooi, break's over. Everyone get back to your seats," The strict math teacher called out in a bored tone that said he had done this a thousand times before as their PE teacher walked in with him.

"Today we're having a spot check. Everyone put your bags on the table." The muscle bound PE teacher in front of class shouted out as he strode along the aisle until he came to one of two problem students in their class.

The troublemaker whistled innocently as he tipped over his bag to reveal nothing but textbooks, a pencil case, some grey fluff and something covered in green and fuzzy mouldy that twitched in a way that made the Uzumaki wonder if it was alive.

"Hideyoshi…" A vein began popping in the teacher's temple at the sight of the boy's bulging pocket and he began repeating some mental exercises in his head to keep from throttling the brown hair boy, "empty out of your pockets as well."

"What?! Why?!"

The 6 foot tall man slammed his fist onto the table with a dangerous smile, "**EMPTY. YOUR. POCKETS!" **

"Huh? Why do I have to do something like that?" The annoyed blonde shot upwards in a fit of passion, "You didn't ask anyone else to do that! This is discriminat - **Clunk**."

"…" Naruto hummed a light tune to himself as he picked the book up and handed it back to his friend with a sweet smile, "You should probably tighten your belt a little more or all the other stuff will fall out as well."

"Oh, thank you." Hideyoshi stuffed the porn mag back into his shirt and continued his previous sentence, "This is discrimination! I will not stand for it!"

The PE teacher was so angry that he seemed to be shaking, "Hideyoshi…."

"Wai-wait!" The boy coughed in a complete fake manner, "Sensei, I'm not feeling well, can I go to the nurse's office?"

Several other boys simultaneously stood up as they realized what their Leader was trying to do, "Me too! I've got chest pains!"

"I've got STD!"

"I've got cancer!"

"What is this? A competition to see which of you dies first?!"

"Hai, Ojima-sensei!" Every single one of them chorused in a rousing display of friendship and cooperation.

"By the way, sensei, they taped some stuff to the bottom of their desks as well." A sneaky blonde commented loudly as revenge for Hideyoshi's remarks.

The PE teacher almost began vibrating in sheer anger, **"All of you strip. Just strip." **

"**Nuuoohh!"**

******Caliburn Initiative******

Nanoha groaned tiredly as she opened the door and entered the Harlaown residence with Fate trailing behind her. Slipping off her shoes, the auburn haired girl trudged into the hall before she unceremoniously flung herself onto the sofa, the back of her head landing squarely on someone's lap.

The lap happened to belong to a young looking blonde boy who had been sitting there by himself in the empty house as he read a book. Barely sparing the redhead a glance, he gave a simple grunt in reply and returned his gaze to the worn pages of the book while Fate smiled faintly at the two them as she made her way up to her room.

"Long day?"

"Sort off." Nanoha muttered as she lazily dropped her school bag to the floor with a loud clunk, "Where is everyone?"

"Lindy and the rest aren't here." Naruto remarked evenly as he turned another page, "They had to go back to Headquarters and prepare for the trial. She told me to wait for the two of you before we joined them."

Fate came back down the stairs, dressed in a fresh black shirt and cute white skirt as she fixed her pig tails with a pair of black ribbons, "Don't forget we're supposed to wait for Hayate-chan and the Wolkenritters too. Nanoha-chan, you should go get ready as well." She chided softly.

"Muu..." the auburn haired girl on Naruto's lap groaned tiredly, "Give me a minute before I pull myself together."

Fate smiled at the two nine year olds sitting on the couch affectionately, "I'll go and cook lunch. Do you want anything in particular, Naruto-kun? Nanoha-chan?"

"I'll eat anything you cook, Fate-chan." Nanoha muttered whimsically from the couch while Naruto only gave her a crooked, hopeful smile, "Ramen? Preferably Miso."

"I don't mind if you cook that yourself." Fate commented lightly as she slipped behind the kitchen counter and checked the fridge.

"You would let me poison myself?" Naruto replied with an obviously false look of pity plastered on his face.

"Or we can have the leftover from yesterday's dinner."

"I'll leave it to you then, Taicho!" Fate only giggled at the blonde's mock salute as she began pulling out some frozen dishes with a tinkling hum.

On Naruto's lap, one violet hued iris opened blearily to stare at the worn book hovering above her head. Attached to the wrist holding the book up was a burnt and heavily scratched Caliburn that hadn't quite managed to repair itself from using Earth Breaker.

She stared at the book silently. Its pages were heavily worn with repeated use and its cover was dog eared even though she knew very well that the book was only about three months old, "That reminds me, I knew that you kept reading but I never really understood why. You don't have to bother about getting good marks in the exam and I have no doubt that you're very aware of that since you have no problem sleeping in class, so why do you keep studying?"

Naruto paused and glanced downwards as he absent-mindedly began running his free hand through Nanoha's pony tail, "No reason in particular I guess. It's more of an exercise for me, most of the energy I use to read is spent trying to keep my concentration on page long enough to absorb the pertinent facts. And it's not like I _want _to sleep in class." He muttered defensively, "There's just something about the place that makes me drowsy."

The nine year old mage on his lap giggled lightly, the blonde whose lap she was on wasn't exactly what anyone would call a good student. Most people could read a science book and realize that acids and alkaline metals didn't mix very well.

Good students would read that and be able to apply it in exams in order to get the best marks.

Naruto on the other hand, was the kind of student that could read that exact same passage and be found not three minutes later trying to blow up the toilet with soap and thumbtacks before someone realized it and dragged him kicking and screaming to the principal's office because a smoking toilet seat had crashed through his window.

"I've found Naruto-kun's weakness, Fate-chan!" She called out exultantly.

The blonde girl in the kitchen tilted her head, "And what is it, Nanoha-chan?" She asked patiently.

"We just have to lock him into a school and he'll lose by default! Then we can go in and kick him while he's sleeping."

One eyebrow sarcastically rose at Nanoha's triumphant crow, "Is it me, or is she drunk?"

"She's not making very much sense is she?" Fate teased Nanoha as she set down three plates won the table in front of the sofa while the auburn haired girl pouted at the two blondes and removed herself from the blonde's lap.

"The two of you are being mean! I'm not hungry anymore! Hmph!"

Fate smiled warmly and knelt down to run her hands through a fuming Nanoha's hair, "I'm sorry Nanoha-chan. Naruto-kun is bad influence on me."

"Oh, sure. Blame the only man here." Naruto dryly commented, "That always works."

"You're not a man, you're just a boy!" Nanoha childishly stuck her tongue out at him, much to his amusement.

Crossing his fingers, he concentrated for a second before the nine year old was engulfed in a cloud of smoke that caused the two girls to give a surprised yelp.

When it cleared, the Takamachi gave the twenty year old whiskered blonde sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed a chagrined look, "That's not fair!" She spluttered indignantly, "I thought you couldn't change back to that form anymore!"

The tall and muscular blonde gently set down his book and smirked, "That one is a little different. As far as I can tell, I actually did revert to my original form that time, but this change is just cosmetic."

"Then why did you bother?"

"Because it feels good down looking on children like you." The Uzumaki said with an impudent smile.

Nanoha felt her left eyebrow twitching at Naruto's childish taunt while Fate only gazed at him with a curious look in her crimson eyes, "Could we possibly learn to do that as well? It certainly seems useful."

"I'm not sure," Naruto admitted, "It might be, though it would probably take some time since both of you are hardwired to using spell arrays."

Fate shrugged as she dug into her dish in a refined manner, "At least now I have something to do when I have some free time. You just have to cross your fingers like how you did and focus on the image that you want right?"

"That's how I learned it." The Uzumaki affirmed with a nod while he picked up the bowl of heated rice.

"So this is what you actually looked like before you came here huh?" Nanoha muttered to herself as she looked him up and down since she hadn't been able to look at his adult form properly the last time. She tsked softly, "It's not bad I guess."

The older blonde smirked at the auburn haired girl's grudging compliment when the doorbell rang loudly.

"Ack!" Nanoha quickly started stuffing her lunch down in a hurry, "They're here already?!"

"Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan, Naruto-kun!" A voice called out from outside the house. The blonde gave his book one last glance before he placed a palm on Fate's shoulder to stop the dutiful girl from answering the door, "It's alright, I'll get it, you just finish up your lunch and make sure the princess here is ready before we're late."

Shoving his hands in the pockets of his slacks, the six foot tall blonde hummed a meaningless tune to himself as he plodded to the front door and opened it with a flourish, "Hayate-chan, did you miss me?"

The girl in the wheel chair cocked her head with curious expression while her Knights who were standing behind her face palmed simultaneously.

"Uhm…. I don't think we've met before," She gave the man in the white flannel shirt and navy blue slacks a quick once over and smiled doubtfully when she realized it was their school uniform, "Are you Naruto-kun's older brother?"

The blonde returned the smile with a flamboyant bow as he glanced at Reinforce, Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira mischievously, "Indeed, I am Naruto-kun's older brother," He lied smoothly, "May I know how that idiot managed to make friends with such a cute-"

Signum who, unfortunately, was the most familiar with the blonde's idiotic antics, immediately planted her fist in his gut before he could go further, prompting him to hit the floor face first with a quiet, _Urk, _as his transformation came undone with a big puff of smoke, revealing the nine year old blonde squirming on the ground.

"Naruto-kun!" Hayate asked with disbelief before she began giggling and mirthfully clapping her hands, "That was so cool; you can change your appearance with magic?"

"Sure I can," He groaned, "As long as there isn't a crude, barbaric woman waiting around to beat down random strangers without a question that is." He painfully pulled himself upright and poked his abdomen with a wince before glaring at a smirking Signum, "Is it me, or did you actually try and break my rib?"

"I tried to break your _ribS." _The rose haired woman replied blandly and without remorse, "Be happy it wasn't Reinforce. She wouldn't have stopped there."

Naruto gaped at the slender woman in the warm sweater behind Signum, "Why are you blushing? That wasn't exactly a compliment you know."

"Maa, maa, don't start arguing now." Hayate soothed her Knight as she wheeled herself into the house with Shamal's help, "We are all friends, right?" She stated with a pointed look at the little group.

"We are, assuming he doesn't do anything stupid like flirting with you again." Vita mumbled spitefully.

The blonde who had heard her mumble simply smirked painfully, "It's nice to see you too, Vita-_chan."_

The statuesque silver haired woman gave the smirking blonde a curious look, "Do you have to try to make everyone around you an enemy or does it just come naturally?"

"It depends really."

"On what?"

"On how much he's willing to grovel when he realizes that he can't cook and we haven't fed him." Fate who had been wondering what was taking Naruto so long, cut in smoothly as she stepped through the door at the end of hall. An amused Nanoha poked her head out from behind Fate and waved at them cheerfully but didn't say anything since she was still busy trying to finish her lunch as fast as possible.

She shot the contrite Naruto a warning look before giving Hayate and the Cloud Knights a warm smile, "It hasn't been too long since we last met but it's still good to meet all of you again." The polite blonde girl bowed with an apologetic smile that told the Cloud Knights that Naruto would not be answering any more doors in the future.

Hayate grinned, "It's no problem Fate-chan, watching them get along with Naruto so well was fun. In fact, I'm a little jealous myself." Ignoring the disbelieving looks that everyone aside from Fate was shooting at her, she hefted up a plastic bag filled with two large round fruit contained in them, "I brought some melons as a gift too."

Fate smiled sweetly and took the plastic bag from the wheelchair bound girl gracefully, "Should I leave this in the fridge until we come back?"

"Why don't we take it with us to TSAB? Chrono is there." Naruto suggest mischievously.

"What do watermelons have to do with Chrono-nii san?" Fate questioned softly.

"He loves melons." Naruto grinned, "He really loves big melons."

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Admiral Lindy," A motherly looking woman nodded at the startled woman who had been waiting at the docking area patiently, "I'm happy to see you are well."

"General Crowbel," a beautiful woman with long green hair flowing down her back saluted smartly, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"It's alright, I had some time off and decided to come here and wait for our mutual acquaintance." She smiled in a way that seemed both warm and chilling, "I have a gift for our little troublemaker that I want to give in person."

"Ah…" Lindy gazed at the teleporter nervously, wondering what Naruto had done now, "They should just about be here I think."

Just as she finished her sentence, the chamber came alight with a soft yellow light as a group of people slowly materialized out of light particles.

One by one, the people that had been involved in the Book of Darkness incident shook the unpleasant tingling off and stepped out of the chamber. Nanoha and Naruto waved happily at Lindy while Fate smiled shyly, to their left, the Cloud Knights stoically lined up behind a small girl bundled into a wheel chair, their backs straight and visages proud, determined not to show any weaknesses to the waiting officers.

"Old Hag! Why are you here?"

The reply to the blonde's overly cheerful greeting came in the form of a fist rapping the back of his head so hard that it and planted his face in the ground for the second time that day as his assailant; the purple haired woman snorted angrily much to Lindy's secret amusement, "Why else do you think I'm here brat?!"

"What in the world were you thinking when you took a highly advanced, fragile prototype for a goddamned joyride by skydiving from orbit?!" The purple haired woman demanded from the face down boy.

Naruto rubbed the black and blue welt on his head with a pout, "I was just in a hurry…"

"…. Hurry my ass. Not only that, you had to go and punch a hole in the moon with your showboating, heavily damaging Caliburn in the process. Do you know how much fixing both of them cost!?" Midget snorted like a raging bull as she pounded the blonde boy's rock hard head again.

"But everything was just fine afterwards…" Naruto muttered sourly with another painful wince.

"And _that's _the only reason your** FACE** is still working fine as well!"

The nine year old boy pouted cutely, "Note to self; nuking the moon with a Starlight Breaker powered by Nine Tails worth of power is totally not worth the paperwork and abuse no matter how cool it looks."

The silver haired Reinforce who was dressed in a homely light blue knitted sweater and a pair of jeans that emphasized her shapely legs cocked one eyebrow at the middle aged woman as she railed away on the blonde.

"I like her already." She commented aloofly.

"I know the feeling," Signum muttered in reply, "We should have come here earlier. She seems reasonable."

Sighing in resignation, TSAB's Head of Investigators patted down her ruffled uniform and turned to face a grinning Hayate and her Knights, "I must apologize for that unseemly display but there was just something I needed to say to a certain idiot." Then she frowned, "I'm sorry that we had to ask this of you so soon after that incident, but Former Admiral Graham is a high ranking officer and highly popular amongst our colleagues." She said with a frustrated look on her face, "To be honest, there has been quite an uproar over this trial and we had to push it up as soon as possible or I would have ensured that you had ample time to rest before being distressed by something like this."

"It's alright," Hayate replied sombrely, "I expected this to happen and will take full responsibility if required."

The hand on her shoulder tightened worriedly, "Master."

"It's alright, Shamal." One by one, her Knights laid a supporting palm on her shoulders, "I have all of you now."

Crowbel smiled warmly, "Don't worry. You'll be fine. Enforcer Chrono has already built a solid case against Former Admiral Graham, he just wants you to testify in front of court to drive the nail in but that won't be till an hour later..." Everyone blinked as something interrupted her midsentence by landing on her shoulder.

Unlike the few females that recoiled in shock, Crowbel regarded the clicking insect with a cool gaze, "Colonel Alpine? Is that you?"

The bug opened its mandibles, causing Shamal and Reinforce to flinch again and back away from the huge bug carefully when it suddenly spoke in a lilting feminine tone, _"General Crowbel, I hope I find you in good health?" _

"I am moderately well, though I see that you have yet to drop your habit of transmitting your voice through your summons." She replied tiredly. Sometimes it just got so annoying having to respond to every General Crowbel this and General Crowbel that.

The melodious reply held a hint to amusement in it, only this time it came from behind the Cloud Knights and Hayate as another group materialized in the teleporter. A slender woman with long deep purple hair stepped forward and gracefully allowed her bug summon to land on the palm of her hand, "Seeing newbies so scared of my precious summons never fails to amuse me."

The tall man who was standing to her left rolled his eyes before saluting smartly, "General Crowbel, I'm sorry for the interruption but we've just finished our investigations and I asked Alpine to locate you. Forgive her for taking that order so liberally." He remarked dryly.

Introductions were passed around hurriedly as a distracted Major Nakajima tried to direct the Head of Investigator's attention to something important.

As the new group began conversing with Crowbel in hushed whispers, Fate began tugging on the Uzumai's sleeve excitedly even as she used him as a meat shield, "Naruto! It's a summon! Those are really rare. I hear you have to get some sort of approval before they let you summon them." Fate whispered in an excited hush at seeing a new brand of magic.

"Screw the bug, that summoner is HOT."

The woman with the long wavy purple hair raised one eyebrow as she slowly turned to look at Naruto, "Commander, permission to castrate that _boy_."

"Denied." Crowbel countered almost instantly as she shuffled through some documents the captain of the Investigator group had just handed to her, "Feel free to hit him though, but make it fast."

Her bug summon instantly attached itself to his face with a flick of her wrist, inflicting justice on the person that had annoyed their mistress, prompting Fate to immediately shove him away from her, "Save me! GAAAAH! It's MOLESTING **MY FACE**!"

Megane Alpine smiled serenely as she let her summon do whatever it was doing to his face before calling it back with a whistle while a thoroughly traumatized Naruto shakily stood up with the help of a tall muscle bound man with brown hair.

The man patted his shoulder pityingly, "Don't mind her. She just doesn't like men very much."

Naruto nodded slowly as he tried to wipe the slime from his face, "Please stop crying on my shoulder, Zest-san. I don't like men very much either."

"He's right." Major Nakajima commented with an entertained smile, "You can mope once we're finished. I for one am looking forward to a nice bath and some down time with my daughters." The tall, friendly looking man who was in command of the group saluted Lindy and Crowbel, "With your permission Ma'am."

Crowbel snorted in malicious enjoyment at the boy's disgusted expression while he wiped off the remaining slime on his lips, "Dismissed Nakajima. You and your team can take some time off for the next week."

As the relieved group trudged away, Crowbel glanced at the fidgeting Cloud Knights, "Naruto, why don't you take them around and show them the sights while I fill in some forms. You've been here quite a few times after all."

"I don't wanna." Naruto mumbled obstinately, still touching his face to make sure there wasn't any slime left.

"Two cans."

"Five."

"Three."

"Deal." Naruto turned to face the group of sweat dropping Mages, "Alright, I'm your tour guide for today," Naruto deadpanned, "If you'll look to your right, you'll see the TSAB. To your left, you'll see the TSAB and a maid café. Tour's over. Enjoy the rest of your pointless visit while I enjoy my reward."

Considering her nonstop giggles, Hayate was quite probably the only one who enjoyed the _tour _mostly thanks to the blonde's utterly straight face and flat, dry tone.

The venerable looking woman laid one palm over her face and sighed tiredly. Sometimes, she felt like being in command of so many nut jobs just wasn't worth it.

She slapped him up the head, "Do it properly. Oh and, I forgot to give you something."

The elderly woman handed him a small envelope, "Congratulations," She said wryly, "You are now officially a B ranked Mage."

"B?" The blonde stared at her for a moment before exceeded all expectations by asking, "Why didn't I get a C or a D? I thought I failed the written exam."

"You almost did," Crowbel scoffed, "But your essay on existentialism was barely enough to give you a passing grade."

"But I left that part blank."

Technically, he left the whole damned thing blank before trying to burn it but he wasn't about to admit that in front of a grinning Nanoha.

"Exactly. Now move it." She shooed them off with a wave.

**Play KOKIA – Hontou no Oto**

Once the little entourage had moved away, Crowbel sighed and directed her attention to her new papers when a thus-far silent Lindy spoke up, "I have to protest that ranking, Commander," Lindy said icily, "You saw the recordings. You saw his training battle for the Academy's recruitment. He singlehandedly humiliated an entire Armed Battalion without a single spell." She threw up her hands in frustration, "Hell, we barely even saw him do a damned thing because he kept luring them into the sewers. Even if his attitude leaves much to be desired, his battle prowess and tactical ability far exceed a B rank mage. How could you let this happen?"

"There is a reason for that." The TSAB Director replied just as coolly.

"And what may that reason be?"

"I don't want him to advance so fast." Crowbel stated quietly, "You said it yourself. The entire 103rd Ground Forces Battalion basically stood around like bloody muppets and took it up the arse while he employed advanced stealth and precise tactics to split them apart before picking them off one by one with his bare hands. I **need **him in our ranks for a little while if I want to get those skills of his. Besides, you saw how he reacted. He probably _wanted _to be ranked as low as possible"

The admiral immediately narrowed her eyes at the older woman's evasive answer, "You are manipulating him, Director Crowbel." Lindy said frostily, "I will not be party to something like that."

"Oh, I know." the purple haired lady admitted candidly, "And he probably does as well. It's almost like we're playing a game. I try to squeeze as much as I can out of an experienced war veteran from an undiscovered system that seems to be locked in an eternal war while he counters my effort by attempting to devise the façade of a cocky, arrogant asshole so that no one would want him in a team, lessening the overall value I can derive from him while maintaining a certain amount of importance so that I can't write him off completely either while." She paused and added with a wry smirk, "Though I'm fairly sure he really is something of an asshole as well."

An understandably bewildered Lindy stared at her, "What? Why go through the effort of devising something so elaborate when he could just leave?"

"He can't leave." Crowbel shrugged with something of a disapproving grimace, "Although I'm sure that he really plans to use TSAB's resources to find his way home, he has intimated on several occasions that he was brought up in isolation and rejected by the larger community of his home but he also states that his trust in them is justified." The purple haired woman nodded, "No doubt, they have may have proven themselves to him but from an outsider's point of view, I cannot help but suspect that Uzumaki was brought up as the perfect weapon. When I questioned him after his mental examinations, the boy was fully aware that he has a tendency to develop a dependency on whoever shows him kindness. In fact, I believe that he predicted beforehand that he would feel indebted to the TSAB for saving him and introducing him to your family. It was something so fundamental to him, that he didn't bother to circumvent it, only ease his conscience by _cherry picking_ what knowledge he will _let _us milk out of him."

Lindy slowly nodded with a similarly upset expression at failing to connect the dots earlier, "Obscenely powerful yet completely and utterly loyal to his home while his upbringing ensured that he would not develop the intelligence, or rather the drive to question his superior's orders. From what little I could observe of his habits while he stayed with us, he grew up so deprived of possessions that it still haunts him to this day."

The green haired Admiral was unaware that she was slowly squeezing the hand railing in her gloved grip until it bent with a screech, she hated child abuse with a passion and to realize that she had not noticed a possible former victim under her care filled her with an uncharacteristic anger, "I've noticed before that he refused to decorate his room beyond the bare minimum as if he expected to bolt at any moment and that there was something off about his training habits but I've always attributed it to his extended vacation in an ice block."

Midget confirmed her suspicions with a simple nod, "It's only a theory but he has told me on a number of occasions that almost all his skills were derived from two basic spells; the Spiral Ball and a Clone Spell. I figure that he probably asked for more, but didn't press the issue since he hadn't really expected to be given anything else and made do with what he had until he realized it wasn't enough. Then and only then did he overcome the psychological barrier enough to_ seriously_ ask for more."

The Arthra's Admiral sighed, "I'm starting to see why you would think that way."

Crowbel grunted to herself and continued, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that it was only by virtue of his own charm and gregariousness that he turned their loyalty to him rather than the opposite. Don't quote me on that though. Maybe he really is just messed up from being frozen, maybe his leaders just made a few mistakes and were sincerely looking out for him and maybe Uzumaki is just a lucky idiot but I'm not in any position to give a definite answer. What I **can** say is that I want to give him a proper taste of a functioning family without having to watch out for his back every moment of the day before he goes back. Doesn't mean that all of us can't benefit from this though." She pointed out reasonably.

"While I don't like this…." Lindy finally said after an uncomfortable silence, "I will follow your recommendations as long as it is in Naruto's best interest."

Unseen to the two officers, a small fly which had been buzzing at the top of the ceiling disappeared with a small puff of smoke.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"I'm honestly not sure what I should be showing you," Naruto said candidly as their group casually strolled along a corridor. One side of the corridor was taken by a busy throng of people bustling towards the cafeteria for lunch while the other was somewhat sparser.

"Crowbel mentioned you coming here more often than us, why is that?" Fate asked softly.

"Nothing in particular," the Assassin plastered a bland smile on his face as he briefly glanced behind him where the Yagami family were standing together with a subdued air, seemingly lending silent support to Hayate.

"I was simply required to meet up with General Crowbel every day for at least a month and meet a therapist every week. Other than her office, the medical bay and the Research and Development Department, I really can't think of anywhere to go."

"Let's go there then. I don't think we've been there either... well at least I haven't been there personally." Nanoha decided with a resolute nod as she politely beckoned for Hayate to follow them down a corridor, "Besides we were supposed to hand in Raising Heart and Bardiche for a check-up weren't we?"

"Un…"

**[Thank you, Master.]**

"Good point, I nearly forgot I have to hand Caliburn in as well." Naruto noted with a wince at the warped black bracelet as they came to a large, forbidding black door with two large letters emblazoned on its surface in white paint, "Come on, this place is actually pretty cool. They're always experimenting and blowing stuff up."

"Now I can see why you came to this place so often." Fate teased him with a reserved smile as she nervously glanced at the large black doors as they opened.

"Finieno-jii san!" Naruto called out loudly as they entered the somewhat gloomy room, the others somewhat more wary than him as they heard muted explosions and mechanical gears grinding somewhere in the darkness.

There was a large clunk from somewhere in front of them when someone crashed to the ground, "Naruto-kun!" The large fat man called out jovially, "You're just on time!"

"You uh…. Know him?" Nanoha who suddenly had second thoughts asked warily.

"He's the head of Research and Development," the blonde quietly whispered, "He's a little off, says he had a few concussions too many, but he's pretty nice."

"Know him?" The short plump man with balding brown hair who hadn't heard the blonde boy's whisper, chuckled heartily, "I haven't had so much fun since Naruto-kun came alone. He's been giving me all sorts of designs, asking me for strange little things like powders and poisons and porn!"

"No, I definitely didn't ask for that last one." The blonde immediately defended to no avail as he felt Nanoha and Fate pinching his arm, one side each while the plump man laughed even louder, "In fact, we just finished one of his requests! So thin it's almost invisible and yet strong enough to lift a warship!"

The man pulled out a spool of wire and flourished it proudly, "We even managed to figure out how to let magic flow through it by adapting standard Micro Fiber!"

"Are you sure that's legal?" Fate questioned hesitantly, "It sounds a lot like Mass Weaponry."

"Nonsense, it's just strengthened Micro Fibre." The excitable man paused before grinning somewhat strangely, "I must be honest I have no idea what he needs it for though."

"That can be easily solved." The blonde accepted the wire gratefully, "Hayate-chan, can you lend me one of those melons?"

The girl in the wheel chair perked up, "Sure… but why?"

Naruto winked audaciously as he took the large yellow fruit from her and balanced it on one finger, "I want to show you another magic trick."

Placing the fruit on the middle of a cleared pedestal, he tapped it twice with an approving nod. A melon wasn't as strong as a normal human skull but it would do for what he had in mind.

Unwinding the spool of wire, Hayate's brown eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of an almost unnoticeably thin sea green layer of magic on the wire that he tensed between two hands.

Swiftly, he drew the wire around the melon several times; the wire somehow passing through the melon like it wasn't there. Allowing his chakra to disperse, he bowed flamboyantly and placed the melon on a plate before passing it a confused Nanoha.

"Well? What magic trick? All you did was wave your little string around." She noted dubiously.

Naruto smiled even wider and he snapped his fingers dramatically.

The melon immediately split into 10 equal slices before their astonished eyes as the old man named Fin began clapping enthusiastically.

"Anyone wants some melon?" He asked them whimsically.

As everyone began eating the melon, Signum kept her eyes on the grinning blonde as he joked with Hayate. She ran one finger along the edges of the melon and narrowed her eyes, "I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I'm never letting those hands of his anywhere near me." She murmured softly.

Beside her Reinforce seemed to share the same opinion as she kept an indifferent gaze on the three girls and Naruto, though the wary light in her eyes said something else entirely, "I remember something like this from his memories. It's the nature of his magic. By expressing it in the wire, he enhanced its cutting power and tensile strength by tenfold, allowing that thin, almost invisible wire to cut through the melon so cleanly that it didn't fall apart until _after_ he shook it. A near perfect assassination technique. Silent, subtle and efficient."

Signum stared at her for a moment, a little lost for words when she finally chuckled, "I forgot you have his arsenal now."

"Why?"

The rose haired woman carefully made sure that Naruto was not listening, "Do you know what he did to Vita?"

Reinforce blinked and her eyes seemed to glaze over, "Searching Database."

After a few tense moments she snapped back to reality with a shudder, "Data found. It is that strange blue ball."

"Blue Ball? That thing he calls the Rasengan?"

"Indeed." Reinforce nodded, "It's a modified version. The original was meant to be materialized on the palm of his hand and used as a drill before its shape destabilized for an explosive, concussive force. What he did to Vita of the Iron Hammer was a modification. By rapidly tapping on her chest, he was forming one of those orbs _**inside **_her chest cavity through her skin."

"Threat level?"

"S rank at least." Reinforce murmured with another shudder, "He held back. Had he utilized that spell to its logical conclusion, Vita's insides would have disintegrated entirely before the orb exploded inside her. Killing her and anyone near her."

"Hmph. Dangerous little bastard."

Reinforce blew out a resigned sigh as she stared at the group of nine year olds, "And yet Master is so fond of him. When we are with her, we cannot make her smile as he does. Why is that?"

"You make her smile in the way that matters. That's more than enough for her." Someone commented from behind them, "I play the clown, but the two of you are her pillars."

Whipping her head around, Signum immediately sent out a scan pulse and grimaced at allowing him to sneak up on them, "I should have known that you would have at least a hundred of those damned clones all over the place."

"Three hundred actually." The clone commented candidly, "Where I come from, there's a special group, feared even by normal assassins, called ANBU. They had a motto that I modified for myself."

Naruto paused and whispered in their ears, _"Information is my blade, the Shadows are my shield and Death owes me money. Beware my Wrath." _

He smirked, "Don't worry; I'm not one to spy on friends besides I'm kinda retired but old habits die hard and all that."

"You spied on us."Reinforce pointed out suspiciously.

"Then you should have found a better place to talk, a place that isn't within my hearing range." Naruto countered before shrugging indifferently, "At any rate, I wasn't intentionally spying on you, just thought I'd warn you about speaking without taking proper precautions. Whether you believe me is up to you." Both of them stiffened as the clone slunk away from them with a sly smile and winked once before disappearing in a slight haze.

"Oi, you two! Why are you standing over there alone?" The original whiskered boy called out happily, the wide stupid grin on his face painted a stark contrast with the chillingly cold clone they had just encountered, "We're going to the cafeteria to meet up with Chrono before we go and find the Old Hag!"

The two of them shared a look and nodded hesitantly.

*******Caliburn Initiative******

"Chono-kun! We heard how you **LOVE **melons, so we brought you some melons!" Nanoha called out happily as she approached the dark robed Enforcer.

Chrono stared at the cheerful Earth Mage; that she had a group of beautiful females trailing behind her except the dog and a grinning Naruto really wasn't helping his position.

Then he slowly turned around to see Amy's glare trying to burn a hole through him while the entire department had apparently heard every single word.

The Enforcer buried his face in his hands and groaned as he felt his social reputation being flushed down the drain.

This was Naruto's fault, he just knew it.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"So which one of you is Signum?"

"The one with the biggest breasts." Naruto who was picking at his nose replied offhandedly.

The tall rose haired lady instantly lifted Leviathan, covering her chest as if using it to protect herself from his perceived perverseness.

"….."

"Oh wait, there's Reinforce now too right?" He glanced at them with half lidded eyes.

This time the silver haired lady wrapped her arms around her body protectively with a disdainful look. She didn't really care for them, but something about the blonde's wandering eyes really offended her.

"Nope. Still Signum."

Reinforce looked vaguely insulted.

Unaware that he was being stared at the blonde continued to pick his nose, until he gained a look of chagrin on his face as if finally realizing what he had just said, "Oh god, what is happening to me?"

"I thought you would've figured it out already."

Naruto gave his superior a questioning look.

"It's called puberty." Midget answered with a malicious smirk as she took the opportunity to get a dig in at the blonde boy, "Your body is stuck at nine while your mind is at 19. So you subconsciously compromise to keep your mental state from being shredded, causing your effective age to average at about 14 or 15."

"**Puberty?!** AGAIN!? You shit eating, sonova-half-troll, WHY DID YOU BOOT ME BACK TO NINE YEARS OLD?! Answer me you lazy bum of a God! Do you need new glasses or something?!"

Completely ignoring Naruto's breakdown, Midget clapped her hands as if closing a file with a calm smile, "You girls might want to remember this technique, it's one of the few ways I can shut him up for longer than 10 minutes outside of setting Fate-chan on him." The lavender haired woman noted with a widening smirk, "Anyway, as I was saying, I look forward to working with you Signum-san."

Signum bowed with a distant smile, "I look forward to it as well."

"Don't forget to bring your clothes as well."

"….Clothes?" her cool distant smile cracked a little.

"Yeah," Midget cocked her head with a curious expression, "This time of the year, we usually have a few photo shots for the more attractive members of TSAB as advertisement for recruitment drives. Hayate-chan volunteered the Wolkenritter the moment she heard about it. Everyone got really excited about it when they saw the samples of you dressing up…." The grey haired woman trailed off at Signum and Shamal's horror struck expression, "…I take it she didn't tell you?"

"Ehh?! Me too?!" Vita squeaked, almost blue with terror.

"Of course not…."

Vita sighed in relief, "Thank…

"We don't want to be arrested."

"**Why can't I tell if I'm more offended or relieved?!" **

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play** **Haruka Tomatsu – Yume Sekai**

An amused Naruto snorted to himself as he leaned back into his chair.

The human mind was a strange thing, Naruto decided, particularly the way everyone returned to their normal schedules with a vengeance shortly after Christmas as if Uminari had not been attacked by a berserk Class Three Lost Logia.

Part of his preparatory lessons to take over the mantle of Hokage had included several long winded classes on diplomacy and tactical warfare but to Naruto's surprise, his mentors had not spared any effort in reminding him that the most important class of all was stress management. The more lives a person took, the more likely it was for them to look around in order to find an anchor before they broke. Thus, it wasn't strange to see someone adopting a new habit with borderline obsessiveness in an attempt to reassure themselves that life was still normal to a certain extent, especially after experiencing something that shook their belief in reality.

As a Hokage on a wartime footing, one of Naruto's biggest challenges had been detecting whenever one of his subordinates had reached that particular point and pulling them off the front lines for some time off to regroup or risk having a rogue nut job hidden amongst his ninjas.

Therefore it had been perfectly understandable for the blonde to see that everybody that had been involved in the Book of Darkness incident throw themselves back into regular life with great vigour.

Admittedly, there had been a few hitches along the way, such as Admiral Graham's short and rather vicious prosecution by the High Council during which the bearded man had refused to say even a single word in defence.

The conclusion had been nothing short of a given and the man, along with his two familiars were sentenced to prison for the rest of their natural lives with parole for good behaviour. The man's trial had shaken many people who knew the good natured admiral, but none more so than his protégé, Chrono who was also put under temporary observation due to his close relationship with Gil Graham.

The day after Gil Graham's trial, a rather hesitant Nanoha and Fate finally had their chat with a nearly frothing at the mouth Arisa and a patient Suzuka. Neither of them had been pleased about being left in the dark and Arisa was heard swearing loudly that she would forever hold a grudge against Nanoha for hiding something like this from her.

The very next day, the Arisa was seen sharing a bento with her two Mage friends.

Then she booted Naruto off the roof just to see if he could survive that; her reasoning was that if he survived an orbital drop, there was no reason he couldn't survive 3 storeys.

Nanoha just nodded and helped hold a screaming Naruto down with a lovely smile on her face.

Everyone else just nodded nervously since they knew that Arisa needed to blow off some steam and Naruto, as one of the most resilient bastards to ever live was the natural choice.

After that, everybody slowly found their own patterns and things settled down somewhat by the time the New Year was around the corner.

Nanoha threw herself back into her normal routine, attacking school work and sports with relish while Fate discovered a nearly religious need to be unobtrusively close to the Harlaowns and her best friend.

Chrono buried himself in his Enforcer's duties with an intense devotion to the exclusion of nearly everything else while the Wolkenritters quietly settled themselves in a stable rhythm of daily chores and community service for the TSAB as Hayate slowly but steadily recovered.

Despite her protests and almost daily insistence that she should be locked away or destroyed, Reinforce became something of a fixture in the neighbourhood and a treasured addition to the Yagami family. The silver haired beauty could be found regularly doing laundry or groceries at the local market, accumulating a sizable fan club amongst the neighbourhood men at the same time, much to her icy displeasure.

"Naruto! Are you done? We're going to be late!"

The blonde looked up from his little personal computer and stopped typing as two girls entered his room without his permission. Not that that would've stopped the more energetic Nanoha, but it certainly would have been nice to be asked.

The blonde smiled as he noted their little kimonos, the general style and cut of the kimonos available here wasn't very different from the ones back home and for some reason it assured him. Nanoha spun around in her pinkish red kimono with a blue obi while Fate shyly stood beside her in a nice soft pink one with a bright yellow obi, "Well?" she impatiently asked, "Why aren't you ready for Hatsumode yet? We hav-" She stopped and blinked when she finally noticed that the blonde at the table was already dressed and ready.

"I was just finishing up some stuff in my journal."

Her eyes lit up with curiosity, "Journal? Can I see it?"

"Not a chance in hell."

The auburn haired girl tugged on his left sleeve, "Awww, please?"

She poked Fate and silently urged her best friend with her eyes to persuade the reluctant blonde girl to join in, "Naruto-kun…."

Naruto stoically endured their wide innocent gaze as the two girls tugged on his sleeve, pulling him along to the door while they cajoled him fruitlessly, "That doesn't really work on me you know."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Possible Battle of Aces Omake **

A familiar looking blonde boy coughed as the dust slowly settled around him. Spitting out some dust that had managed to get into his mouth with a grimace, he glanced at the long linear trench before him.

The trench was about a foot in depth and three feet in width, churning up ground, super carbon and trees alike, stretched until it abruptly ended in a large hole in the wall of TSAB's general training grounds.

"How did you manage to do that? I only managed to complete the Ou Tatsumaki after three years and you go and do it in one afternoon," He complained in a disbelieving tone before pursing his lips with a measuring look at the long trench, "Though you might want to reduce the output by 75%. Anything more than that is just pointless since the Ou Tatsumaki is principally meant for incapacitation. If you wanted something as destructive as this, you might as have used the Tailed Beast Ball or a Starlight Breaker."

The dirty and smudged girl beside him grinned proudly even as she wiped a few smudges of dirt from her face, "Teehee."

"Teehee, my ass."

The small girl pouted, "Gomen, papa." Her mismatched eyes widened with pure innocence in a way that told Naruto that she was not sorry at all.

Sighing, the blonde glanced at rubble that used to be a perfectly serviceable wall and winced.

"If your mother asks…. We were never here and I did not just teach you an A rank spell. That large hole over there just magically appeared out of nowhere."

"Mmmhmm," The small girl who was only slightly shorter than him smiled widely, "We were eating ice cream in the park, weren't we papa?" She chirped innocently.

"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of..."

"**Weren't we, papa?" **

"….. Are you…. _blackmailing _me?"

The ten year old boy sounded as if he wasn't sure he should be impressed or be scared.

"Ant-jii chan said it wasn't blackmail," She peered up at the whiskered blonde and her mismatched eyes widened theatrically, "It was mutually beneficial negotiations." She reasoned.

"If your mothers couldn't make it work on me, what makes you think that's going to be any different for you?"

Her prodigiously wide eyes began to water as the small blonde girl started sniffing, "I was so scared…. Naruto papa brought me to this scary dark place and made me learn how to make stuff go **boom boom**… I was so scared, Nanoha mama… Waaaaa!"

"Oh God, what has the future me DONE to you?"

30 minutes later, Vivio found herself and a disgruntled Naruto sitting outside a café as she happily licked a vanilla sundae.

"I really hope I get to meet this Ant-oba chan soon." Naruto muttered.

"Ant-oba chan? But Ant-jii chan is a guy. A big strong guy that works for you." Her arms flailed around as she screwed up her nose cutely to emphasize how big this man was supposed to be.

"Not when I'm done with him."

******Caliburn initiative******

We're in Melbourne for Mid Semester break. Be back in time for Mid-term exams for Kur0. Look forward to another update in roughly three weeks at least I guess.

This chapter was a little disjointed but it can't be help. Had a pretty crappy month. Midterm exams for me last week, the week before a couple of Kur0's friends passed away. Damn near anything she wrote since was... Depressing.


	10. Tenth Step: Ten Thousand Times

**Caliburn Initiative Chapter 10**

**Tenth Step: Ten Thousand Times  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha belongs to Seven Arcs and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

Happy Father's Day to the current and future fathers reading this fic.

**Soundtrack List **

Supercell – Perfect Day

Naruto OST – Menma's Theme Extended

Skillet – Rebirthing

Evanescence – Everybody's Fool.

Naruto Shipuuden OST – Experienced Many Battles

Stephanie - Friends

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Signum-san," The pretty and young officer who had accosted her bowed politely. Behind Signum, the rest of the Wolkenritter simply watched with bored expressions as they lounged around the training room where they had just concluded a practice match for the examiners, "I'm sorry for the delay, but there have been some complications in the paperwork."

A faint annoyance flashed across the tall Knight's cheeks as she anxiously glanced at her wristwatch, a gift from their Master. She made a great effort not to let her annoyance show but even the neutral yet severe look she sent the secretary still caused chills to run up and down her back, "Can you do something about it? We have an appointment to keep with our Master soon."

The harassed clerk bowed profusely again, "I understand that you're in a hurry, but while you wait, why don't you look through our training recordings?"

"I hope Hayate-chan won't be angry if we're late for the Hatsumode." Vita mumbled what everyone else was thinking before she sighed irritably at the poor girl scurrying away from Signum's wrath, "Might as well do what she said I guess. I want to see if we did anything wrong anyway. Shamal, do it for me please?"

The pale blond woman who was leaning on the wall sent the small girl lounging lazily on the sofa a slight glare before tapping the console on the wall with a resigned expression. Bringing up the list of choices, one eyebrow quirked, "Hmm… there are more recordings here than just ours."

"Are there any interesting ones?" The wolf lying by Vita's legs barked calmly.

"….. Ranking Match; Uzumaki Naruto vs the 109th Batallion."

"Heh…. Hehehe…" Vita began giggling with an evil smirk at the thought of lording this over the frustrating blond, "Can we watch that? I want to see how badly he must have done to only get a B-rank."

Signum who had been standing alone on the other side of the room slowly nodded in agreement, "It would not hurt if we had more accurate information on his abilities."

With a crystal like sound, a large transparent and display appeared at the head of the room while the recording played.

Immediately, they saw two groups of men gathered around a table, or rather, a group of rather resentful looking officers in brown uniforms on one side, presumably because they were being forced to fight against one lousy kid, and Naruto, with his typical bored expression on the other.

"Please place your equipment on the table for inspection checks before proceeding to the arena." Someone they could not see announced.

Silently, the two sides shuffled out some items and placed them on the table for inspections. While the other side of table had a large collection of typical combat items such as Devices a First Aid Box and some other accessories that could be used in conjunction with their Devices the blond only had a roughed up Caliburn, a roll of wire and a sheaf of rectangular papers that looked like charms of some sort.

"…. What is he doing with **paper**?" Vita mumbled quizzically, half amused and half exasperated at the blond's sleepy expression. She half suspected that the blond had completely forgotten about the match and had been sleeping on his paperwork when they woke him up, "Is he even serious about this?"

When the order was given, the two sides recollected their equipment and began heading through the arena through the same door.

"May the best **man **win." The man who they assumed was Commander of the 109th battalion muttered quietly, although not quietly enough if the recorder still picked it up.

The way the brown haired man was looking down on the boy made it clear that he didn't include the bored looking ten year old in his little joke, his friends laughed boisterously at his little joke while the only female in their ranks looked at the young ten year old boy with something that resembled pity.

Sighing, the blonde adjusted his scarf and tucked himself deeper in it, "Sure, and may dirt taste good when I feed it to all six of you."

When they were finally gathered on opposite sides of the field, a loud and clear bell rang out, signifying the start of battle.

The 109th battalion immediately lifted up their Devices, "Set u-"

They were fast, and apparently well trained in Mage combat, but it wasn't fast enough.

Before they even finished invoking the start-up sequences and protect themselves with their Barriers, a yellow and orange blur that was Naruto instantly crashed into the heavy set man who had been carrying the first aid box, driving one knee into his gut before swinging around to sweep one leg underneath him. Then he finished the turn with an axe kick that drove the large man who was built like a brick house into the ground face first.

Zafira winced, immediately recognizing the same set of manoeuvres that Naruto had used on him the first time they had met, "Did… I really look like that when he knocked me out?"

"No. you weren't drooling."

"Ah…" It was small comfort, but at this point, Zafira would accept it quite willingly.

The dust slowly cleared and the blond stood there with a highly indifferent expression and a knocked out medic at his feet.

There was a stunned silence as they stared at him.

"What?" Naruto questioned eloquently as he audaciously tapped on the back of the unconscious man's head with one foot, "The bell rang. Nobody said I couldn't hit you before your Barrier Jackets were ready though."

Even having to dodge a series of shooting type spells as the angry group chased after him, the blond still looked half asleep, but Signum was beginning to realize that rather than any real lethargy, his lazy appearance was simply his way of taunting his opponents, driving them into an unthinking frenzy so he could take advantage of it.

Jumping from broken rubble to broken rubble, the agile blond crouched, letting a searing beam harmlessly soar by before he back flipped. Unfortunately, he seemed to have made a mistake as a series of binding spells caught him mid jump, chaining him so he hung by one hand that had been suspended in mid-air when one of the ones that had laughed at him earlier charged in with an angry snort.

His entire front was engulfed with a deep red aura as he bellowed his way towards the suspended blond like a comet.

"Caliburn, **Round Shield**!" Twisting his body like a snake, the blond tucked himself behind the small buckler shield that lit up from the bracelet around his free arm and there was a loud gong like noise as the comet collided with the shield.

"That's interesting…. I don't think I've seen a Mage do something else other than** stand** there and tank the hit with a Shield." Zafira commented lowly. The Wolkenritter's Guardian Beast who specialized in shields watched as the blond boy angled his body, instead of pinpointing the shield to hang in the air, he attached it to his wrist unlike the original **Round Shield**, allowing for a more portable version. Compensating for the lesser defence by angling the shield, the comet only struck a glancing blow that broke the Binding spells.

The blond immediately sprung out of the ball like a compressed spring and whacked his attacker in the face with the shield attached to his forearm. The man who had been thrown back by the violent assault skidded to a stop and spat out some blood and a broken tooth into his palm.

He stared at it the blonde incredulously, "You hit me with a shield."

Naruto gave the tooth in his hand a pointed look, "I think we've already established that. Would you like another demonstration? Though I must admit that I'm actually kinda surprised that worked myself." Naruto muttered to himself under his breath.

"It's a shield; it's supposed to be for defence!"

Naruto bashed his face in again.

As the blonde watched the man in the brown and black uniform fall from the sky, he glanced at his bracers before shrugging, "If it works, it works."

Cancelling the flight spell, he dropped like a rock before he could be caught again, winding his way through the broken buildings before he seemed to disappear into a shadow somewhere.

"Here!"

The remaining four members gathered around something in the shadows. As if responding to the Wolkenritters' curious looks, the insubstantial display seemed to adjust the lighting so that they could see that the 109th Battalion was gathered around a manhole of some sort, "He went down here! I saw him!"

"Verra," the brown haired leader gestured violently to their only female member, "You go down first!"

She gaped at the order, her long black hair fell lustrously along her shoulders and her heart shaped face was tainted by disbelief, "Go **down**?! Without even checking for traps? Are you insane?"

"We read the file, he doesn't have any trap spells or projectile attacks unless he's been hit by one once before," the man repeated his order with furrowed brows at her insubordination, "Now go!"

"It's not like he needs it given how thoroughly he's been trouncing us even without a Barrier Jacket." The woman muttered under her breath in a disgruntled tone before straightening up again, "All the more reason why we need to lure him out into the open and attack in cascades isn't it?!"

"Just take point!"

Quite clearly doubting his orders, the woman named Verra warily lowered herself into the manhole before her _comrades _followed behind her, their eyes burning with a terribly eager light to extract retribution from the cornered blond.

The screen remained in place for a moment, showing nothing but an empty building and a manhole much to the Wolkenritters' confusion when something stirred in the far shadows of the building.

Stepping out from behind a piece of black cloth with a sweat drop on his face, he face palmed. His expression clearly had, _'Did they seriously just make it that easy for me? What idiots.'_ plastered all over it.

Reaching into his scarf, he pulled out something before he began calmly rolling up a wad of those strange papers. Then he looked at the small ball he had made and scratched his head.

A mischievous, loony grin slowly spread across his lips.

It was the same kind of stupid grin he had on his face when he used **Earth Breaker** for the first time and Signum could almost **hear** him thinking, _'If I'm going to do this, I might as well go for broke,' _

Pulling the rest of his papers out of his scarf, he added them to the wad of paper as well before he chucked the basketball sized ball of papers into the hole much to everybody's confusion.

"I sincerely hope your Barrier Jackets are as good as they claim to be." He called down the manhole with a wicked grin, prompting several curses from the dark hole. He waited a while as he listened to them climbing back up the manhole.

"If they don't… well… I'm sure they've got enough pain killers."

Humming a silly tune to himself, he stepped away from the manhole when there was a massive explosion behind him that rocked the entire field.

Towers of pure flame shot up all around the field as the explosive force charged down the sewers, looking for an escape while four blackened figures could be seen hurtling through the horizon from the force of the explosion when they were violently thrown from their manhole.

Amidst the orange inferno that roiled around him like a furious deity, the blond was very clearly doubled over, giggling to himself like a mad man.

**Ranking Match Over. **

**Winner; Uzumaki Naruto. **

"For the record, they survived my little firework and that Verra girl was the only one who got promoted to the Primary Ground Forces," Someone noted from beside Signum, causing the rose haired woman to start a little at the blond who had suddenly appeared beside her, "Because she was the only one with enough brains to wonder if it was wise to go down that manhole without confirmation."

"Why are you here?" She hissed warily, glancing at the rest of the Wolkenritters who were still staring at the empty screen with open mouths as if they couldn't really believe what just happened, "And rather than that, I'm more curious why they haven't chucked you into an asylum before throwing away the key."

"I'm too cute?"

"You're perception of reality is rather skewed," Sighing, she folded her arms stiffly, "And is there **nowhere** safe from your eavesdropping ears?"

"Well…. I haven't been able to get into this really interesting looking room on the highest floor but I'm working on it. Oh, and I'm just a clone." He replied blandly, "Just figured I'd let you know that the original is already at your house and waiting."

"I'll keep that in mind." Signum said stiffly as she glanced out the window where the secretary was walking towards them with a wide smile and a sheaf of papers, "We should be done fairly soon anyway."

He nodded noncommittally, "Incidentally, Hayate forgot to bring in the laundry today."

"So?"

"Did you know that Hayate-chan puts name tags on all your clothes?"

She looked at him with one arched eyebrow, "In a house with so many females, it's only natural isn't it?"

"True….."

There was a slight pause.

"Pink ribbons? **Really**?"

She punched him.

******Caliburn Intiative******

**Supercell – Perfect Day**

Naruto suppressed a long yawn as he walked alongside Nanoha and Fate; the two girls were humming peacefully, hand in hand as they walked to Hayate's home while the sky was still dark and he briefly wondered if it was really necessary to wake up so early for something like this.

He didn't really get the importance since his culture had never emphasized it, but there was no point in resisting them. He might as well go along with it and humour the two hard headed girls walking beside him.

The three of them were supposed to meet up with Hayate and the Wolkenritters at her house, before they went to the local shrine for a strange ceremony called Hatsumode, sort of like greeting the New Year.

Pulling his orange scarf even tighter around his neck, the blond let out a muffled sigh as the auburn haired girl reached up and began knocking on the door.

"Hai, coming." Hayate's accented Japanese rang out from behind the door. There was the sound of wheels squeaking on wood before the door opened, and the girl sitting in the wheelchair beamed at them, "You made it!"

It seemed like Hayate had mentioned that she had never been able to go out for the traditional greeting before because of her poor health, or at least, she couldn't remember the last time she had been allowed to go out at the very break of dawn and visit the shrine while the temperature was freezing. But since the Tome of the Night Sky had stopped leeching her Core, her health rapidly began to improve with some help from the TSAB and Reinforce.

It even looked like she would well enough to join them when the three of them went up the fourth grade next spring.

Nanoha and Fate both smiled warmly and hugged the frail looking girl affectionately, "Of course we would! We promised."

Behind the two of them, the blond felt his lips curl up a little with amusement, "Yo."

"It's not _'Yo.'_ Naruto-kun," Hayate grinned as the violet eyed girl with her arms still around her neck began scolding the blond, "You should greet people properly."

As Hayate led the three of them into the warmth of the house with Fate's help, she could hear the other two bickering, or more precisely, Nanoha protesting his lack of manners loudly while the blond simply humoured her with a bored nod every now and then since he knew that she was covering up her nervousness with an extra dose of manic energy.

"Ah, Master." The tall silver haired beauty who was behind the counter stirring a pot of red bean soup with an expression of intense concentration looked up from her task and nodded to them, "Takamachi-san, Testarossa-san, Jackass."

"Oi! I HEARD SOMETHING REALLY IMPOLITE JUST NOW!"

The calm and cool beauty whose figure made a simple sweater and jeans look like the finest robes merely gave him an indifferent look, "You must have heard wrong, Uzumaki-san. May I suggest you submit yourself for a health checkup if you can't even hear properly anymore?"

"I'm perfectly fine!" the blond protested.

"Then they obviously didn't do good job."

Giggling, the three girls sat around the table while Naruto and Reinforce began insulting each other. Sighing, Hayate propped herself up on one cheek and watched the two of them go at it, "I wonder why they just can't be nice to each other. They seem like such good friends too."

""Totally impossible."" The two of them immediately retorted in sync.

She laughed again when Fate looked around, "Signum and the rest aren't here?"

"Ah… They'll be joining us later," The brown haired girl explained as she served the two girls some tea, "They're still at the TSAB, handing in their registrations and getting their ranks so that they can begin work, but they'll be here before we have to leave."

"Ah…" Nanoha's puzzled look was replaced by a wry one as she understood the situation, "I forgot that the office is still open. It's really too bad that Mid doesn't celebrate this holiday either."

"They don't really celebrate Christmas either." Fate noted blandly.

Nanoha snickered, "Teaching Fate-chan about Christmas was fun though."

The blond boy who had slid into the seat beside a blushing Fate grinned widely and winked at Hayate conspiratorially, "She stayed up the whole night you know, worried that a stranger was going to sneak into her bedroom, but she didn't want to lock her door since Nanoha told her that Santa-san was a good person."

"Naruto-kun! I don't want to hear that from you!" She poked the grinning boy, "When you heard that someone was going to hide gifts in a sock, you went out and bought a huge sack shaped like a sock!"

This time it was his turn to glow red and splutter, "How could have I known that it didn't work that way? Besides, weren't you the one that snuck into my room because you were too scared!?"

She blushed until the red reached her neck and Nanoha made a pleased sound at the two of them, "Really?" Her eyes twinkled at the two blondes, "How have I **not** heard about this?"

Watching the two of them try to adjust to Earth life seemed like a never ending source of amusement to the nine year old Mage.

"Nanoha-chan, not you too!" Fate rarely complained, but there was a slight hint of whining in her words as she pleaded with her friends to stop teasing her.

"Hai, hai," Hayate clapped her hands with a grin, "Let's stop teasing Fate-chan. Why don't you two come and help me change into a kimono while we wait for the rest?"

Reinforce looked up from her bean soup, "I can help too, Master."

"You need to change too, Reinforce-chan." Hayate added crisply.

The blond girl shot her a grateful look as the females left the hall, leaving Naruto to sit alone in the hall.

"What am I? Air?!"

"You're always welcome to help me and Reinforce change, Naruto-kun," Hayate's kansai dialect rang out, thick with mischief, "I know you can barely restrain yourself from peeking into this garden of flowers as it is."

"Do it and I'll castrate you." Reinforce's voice echoed from the next floor, unmistakably cold.

"Do it and I'll poke your eyes out." Nanoha chirped happily.

"Why do I feel like my reputation cannot go any lower in your eyes?" He sighed mournfully, "At least Fate-chan still believes in me."

"Naruto-kun…. Do it and I'll break your spine."

"FATE-CHAN?!"

******Caliburn Initiative******

Naruto detached his face from the table top and glanced at the wall blearily as he heard the sounds of somebody opening the door.

Pausing to stretch the kinks out of his muscles, he called out, "Hayate-chan, I think the rest are back."

"Ooh," Hayate who was still in the room with the other three even half an hour later called back, "They are back? Send Signum and the rest up here will you? I already have Kimonos prepared for all of them."

Shuffling towards the corridor, he waved at the Wolkenritter, "Yoo**O?!"**

The moment Signum's eyes landed on the sleepy looking blond, they flared with righteous anger. With great big strides, she reached his side in a split second and smashed his head with a sheathed Laevantein, **"Memory Crushing Strike!" **

"Gwek!"

"Signum? What was that sound?" Hayate called out as she heard the sound of a body hitting the floor.

"Nothing, Master." The rose haired knight answered plainly as if she had not just bashed someone's skull in, "I was just crushing a dirty bug that is even worse than a cockroach."

"…..Oh... Just make sure Naruto-kun doesn't bleed all over the carpet again." She replied lightly, "And come up with Shamal and Vita when you're done. Hurry up, or we're going to be late."

"Of course, Master."

Zafira watched all three of them gave the blond, who was pretty much dead to the world, a kick each before trooping up the stairs, very clearly ignoring the fact that they had a face down body sprawled in the middle of their hall. Making a doggy shrug, he stepped on the blond and went to the hallway before curling up on the floor.

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" Fate asked with concern as she rubbed his back.

"I'm fine…" The blond who was rubbing his neck made a confused face, "but for some reason I can't remember what happened after Signum came home… just a blinding pain, and something about the colour pink…"

"Fuumu…" in front of Nanoha, Hayate made a huffing sound, "You didn't even have say anything about our kimonos, even though I went through the trouble of making such nice ones."

"Yeah, nice. Very nice." The blond muttered flatly, making it very clear that he was more concerned with his missing memory than Reinforce's fresh ice blue Kimono that suited her chilly demeanour, Signum's rose pink Kimono that went well with her hair, or even Vita's bunny styled Kimono.

"Muuu….." Hayate continued to steam in her wheelchair, with Zafira walking beside her until they reached the foot of the shrine when someone called out to them.

"Hayate-chan!"

Her angry pout vanished as she waved at Arisa and Suzuka energetically. The two young girls rushed up to her, Fate and Nanoha before they piled on each other in a loud group hug.

"Why do they always do that group hug and squeal, even though the last time they saw each other was yesterday?" Naruto half mumbled to himself.

"It's a girl thing. Just put up with it."

He glanced beside him and widened his eyes at the brown haired boy, "Hideyoshi? What are you doing here?"

"Came with Suzuka," He answered dryly, "It was either that or get dragged."

"Huh? Why would Suzuka want you to come?"

"Didn't you know we were neighbours?" The basketball player who was in a male kimono like he was waved one hand lazily, "We've even been in the same class ever since kindergarten."

"…. That actually explains a lot."

"Eh? What does?"

"Nothing." The blond replied blithely.

"… If you say so." Stuffing his hands into his pockets to protect them from the cold, he sighed, "Let's just go before the lines get really bad."

Grunting, the two boys and a dog trailed behind the group of chattering girls, their scowls made it very clear that neither of them wanted very much to be out in the freezing cold when they could be curled up in their nice, comfy beds.

"Naruto!"

The Uzumaki looked up blearily and made a face as the auburn haired girl bounced up to him, "Look! They're selling Taiyaki here!"

"Yeah," Wetting one finger with a lick, he rubbed it along her lips and wiped away the bean paste with a wry expression, "I can tell."

Beside him, Fate tugged at his sleeve and spoke softly as she offered him the bean filled pastry that was shaped like a fish, "I bought one for you."

"C'mon, there some other shops over there! Let's see if they have any drinks!"

"Hey wait!" Hideyoshi felt blue eyes gazing at him, reluctant to leave him alone.

"Go ahead and break a leg man."

Naruto, who still wasn't very used to the metaphors and sayings that were used today, only gave him a puzzled look, "I only have two. If I break one, I won't be able to stand properly."

"Then break your arms."

"How bout I break your head since you don't seem to need it?" The blond commented with a mild look.

"Whatever, just go, you idiot."

Hideyoshi watched the blond get dragged off by Nanoha and Fate with a wry smile before glancing down at Zafira, "Looks like it's just us guys huh?"

The overly large dog regarded him with a dry look before promptly going off to find Hayate.

Breathing into his hands to warm them up, Hideyoshi sighed to himself when he felt somebody's presence beside him.

"That was nice of you."

He briefly glanced at the well-dressed girl standing beside him, "We're friends. It's what friends do." Hideyoshi observed blandly, "He'll owe me for this though."

"Hmm…" Reaching into her kimono, Suzuka brought out a steaming packet of taiyaki, "Here."

"Heh, thanks."

It was about half an hour later, after some drinks and food, before it was finally their turn at the offertory box. One by one, they threw in some coins and pulled on the bell, making it jangle loudly before they prayed a wish for a good year.

At the very end of the line, Hayate clasped her hands together and prayed, "Kami-sama, may Fate-chan's wishes come true this year." She clapped twice.

Beside her, Fate secretly glanced to her right and squeezed her eyes shut, "Kami-sama, may Nanoha-chan's wishes come true this year."

As the blond girl clapped twice, the auburn haired Mage glanced to her right as well and frowned, "Kami-sama, may Naruto's wishes NOT come true this year."

Beside her, the blond who had mimicked them with his hands clasped together tightly, frowned, "Kami-sama, may - EH?! Why is mine different?!"

**Play Naruto OST – Menma's Theme Extended**

Giggling, Nanoha danced out of the blond's grasping fingers and waved at him cheekily.

Watching the nine year old dance away with a softly smiling Fate while Hayate followed behind with a mischievous look, Naruto sighed and smiled faintly.

He glanced at the shrine behind him and whispered a prayer.

"_Kami-sama.… Whoever you are, I'm probably not considered somebody under your jurisdiction but if you can hear me, I pray that they will always be happy." _

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Hey."

Removing the ocarina from his lips, he looked up at the girl in the white and blue uniform as she landed on their roof with a gentle touchdown, "Hey yourself. What are you doing here?"

"Hmm….. I wanted Hayate-chan to enjoy her first New Year with Reinforce-san and the rest, Lindy-san went to visit her husband's grave with Chrono-kun and Amy-san and Yuuno-kun is still at the TSAB," Allowing her Barrier Jacket to dissipate, the auburn haired girl kicked away the snow that had collected around the Harlaown's roof and made a place for herself to sit, "So I was wondering what you two were doing up here."

"I suddenly just felt like it."

It had been about two hours since their visit to the shrine, after which the group had slowly separated and gone home. Perhaps it was the atmosphere of the shrine visit and the significance it held, but he had been seized by a sudden urge to go somewhere high and isolated and watch the sun rise.

Somewhere that reminded him of top of the Hokage Statues.

Somewhere where he could wonder if everybody else was greeting the New Year just like he was.

"I think she didn't want me to be alone, so she stayed with me even though Lindy asked her to go grave visiting." The blond briefly looked down at the girl sleeping on his lap and made a non-committal sound as he pulled his white and red cloak tighter around the sleeping girl with a half-smile, "I told her to go to sleep in her bed if she was tired, but she didn't want to listen."

Nanoha chuckled quietly, "Sounds like her."

Keeping his eyes on the rising sun that dyed the clouds a bright red while he ran one hand through Fate's hair, he gave her a nudge, "How are your parents?"

"The same?"

He gave her a mild look, causing her to flush a little. Along with Lindy's support, Nanoha had finally made it clear to her parents that she wanted to go to Mid and train to become a proper mage after the Tome of Darkness incident. While her mother had kept quiet, her father had been somewhat reticent, perhaps understandably so.

Having worked as a bodyguard for most of his life until he met her mother, Nanoha's father, Shiro was more than a little reluctant to let his little girl enter a life of battle. At least, if it had to do with fists, blades or guns, it would be something that he could understand, but spending the rest of her life as a Mage who could fly and use earth shaking magic?

Not very damn likely.

At first he had outright denied her the chance to train, but seeing her daughter's distress at his vehemence, Miyuki had persuaded Shiro to at least think about it, promising that they would give Nanoha a proper answer on New Year's Day. This was the reason she had been somewhat overly energetic the entire morning.

"They're still hesitant about the whole thing, but Tou-san said he would let me go." She kicked her legs aimlessly, "Even if I had to go to another planet, if becoming a mage was what I found meaning in, then he would swallow his fear and believe in me. T-then he hugged me and said I was growing up too f-fast."

Naruto pretended not to notice her wiping her eyes.

He knew that she wasn't sad, it had just never hit her how much her father loved her.

"As long as I showed him that I could handle both training and high school at the same time… and as long as I remembered where my home was no matter how high I flew, he would let me become a Mage."

"…He loves you."

"Yeah." Nanoha agreed with a croak and leaned into the blond's side, "Yeah, he does."

He pretended not to notice the chilly tears soaking his shirt as he pulled the girl a little closer.

Palming the ocarina with his free hand, he began to blow on it again, creating a hauntingly familiar song, and the only song he knew how to play, that lulled Nanoha to sleep.

When she woke up again, she would find herself back in her bed and a small knitted puppet sitting beside Raising Heart's standby mode.

******Caliburn Initiative******

**Play Skillet – Rebirthing**

"This is **such** a pain in the ass." Naruto muttered to himself as he stood in the middle of a crowd of students, not even paying the slightest smidge of attention to the principal, a kindly looking old woman's droning voice. Not a single face was familiar to him here, and the blond wore a stiff scowl on his lips as the only outward proof of his unease. Of course, the fact that almost everyone here was… taller than him didn't help his mood at all.

While Mid culture didn't really care how old you were as long as you proved that you had the passion and desire to contribute, 8 years old was the minimum cut off point for the Mages to at least have a reasonable grasp of their responsibilities and nature as people who could wield Magic. That being said, he was still surrounded by a majority of people that were 11 years old or older.

Naruto consoled himself at the thought that with proper food and exercise, he would at least hopefully grow to be somewhat taller than his original height….

Assuming he wasn't **permanently** stuck as a nine year old.

Now that would **really** suck.

At least they didn't make him wear that dopey white uniform and childish black tie here.

Speaking of childish uniforms, school hadn't actually resumed back on Earth yet since it was still on New Year's break, the scarred blond was simply attending his first day at the Academy, as were Nanoha and Fate. However, the two of them were attending another Academy on the North side of Mid specifically for trainee Mages that were ranked A and above, which left him alone here.

As the crowd around him began to murmur and move towards the exit, Naruto finally perked up from his half daze. Together with the large crowd, they began to move to the training fields where it seemed like they would be given a preliminary assessment about their basic skill before being streamed into groups that would be easier to administrate.

Accepting the training Device that he had been given along with a piece of paper with something written on it, the blond twirled the spear like weapon around his hand with absolute boredom.

"Now, please go to the training ring that you have been allocated," One of the teachers yelled out over the bustle, "You will your find your opponent there. It is okay if you do not have any offensive spells, simply make do with what you have and we will mark you accordingly."

Twirling the simple Device around his wrist while he made sure not to channel any chakra to the fragile looking thing, Naruto calmly wound his way through the crowd to the stage at the very end of the field where his opponent was already waiting.

A blue haired girl with a haughty expression on her face looked down on him, and Naruto frowned. He wasn't really affected by her expression, but more that it seemed really familiar for some reason, as if they had met before….

Ah. That idiot that had mocked Pigtails during their exams, so she was ranked B or lower as well.

Indifferently, he passed his piece of paper to the examiner and climbed onto the stage with a little dinky hum where he faced the proud girl.

Scratching his cheek with the pointed end of his Device, the blond carefully listened to the regulations that were being read out before their referee lifted a whistle to her lips and blew on it.

"Ha!" The girl whose name he had not bothered to acknowledge lifted her Device and an array slowly materialized on the other end, "Pierce Drive!"

Naruto calmly shuffled half a step to the side and let the blue bolt pass him by harmlessly.

Giving her a bored look, he squatted on the ground and began picking his nose when another blue bolt was shot at him. Almost dispassionately, he batted it away with his Device.

That pretty much set the rhythm for the next five minutes.

He simply sat there with an expression of absolute boredom and simply knocked away anything she threw at him with his Device or his bare hand until right before the timer rang.

By that point though, the blue haired girl had lost all signs of dignity and was practically hopping up and down in mad fury, right up until Naruto flicked his wrist and hurled his Device at her like a javelin.

The blue haired girl stood there as stiff as a plank as the Device roared by her, missing her head by an inch. Swaying in spot with her knees shaking, she stared at the emotionless blond before her eyes rolled back into her head and she finally toppled over backwards.

"…. Wow. That was… **sad**."

The blond's bored comment seemed to knock the sense back into their stunned referee, "Uh…. Winner; Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Why are you asking me?" The blond observed sardonically, prompting her to flush.

"Uhm… yes, I mean no." She handed him another piece of paper, "Here. Take this to Principal Diavel and she'll sort you into your group." Giving the medics a sign, she called out to them, "Someone get Inova-san to the infirmary and let her know what her marks are!"

So that's what her name was. Both her and the Principal that is.

"The Principal? I imagine she would have had better things to do than watch a bunch of idiots wave a stick around." Naruto noted wryly as he watched the group of white clothed women cart a drooling Inova away.

"She likes to do it herself, says it keeps her connected with her students. Does it every time we have a new batch too." The young teacher commented with a light shrug that the blond returned as he meandered towards the large podium where the grey haired woman sat, watching the large stages around her with a warm smile.

"Principal Diavel." Naruto said with a nod as he handed her his results.

Glancing down at the sheet with a well-practiced eye, she smiled at him faintly, "Uzumaki Naruto huh? Interesting battle style. Was there a reason you chose not to use any magic?"

"There was no reason." Naruto replied blithely.

"No reason to use magic or no point wasting it on someone who wouldn't be able to match you anyway?" Diavel asked with a thin smile.

"Both" He answered bluntly, as she handed him yet ANOTHER piece of paper.

"Here's where your dorms are. Your luggage will be sent to your room along with some documents for you to peruse until 4pm." Rather than get upset at his callousness, her eyes twinkled warmly, "By then Inova-san should have recovered and we should be able to continue with the next part of orientation. Until then, feel free to use that time to do anything"

Feeling strangely like a mouse under her gaze, the blond meandered off to his dorm and threw himself onto his bed. The week passed quickly since all of them were required to attend a mandatory month long course which introduced them to the many types of Magical disciplines available at the Academy, along with some etiquette and some other nonsense that simply irked him.

Unlike Nanoha or Fate who had chosen to head home after lessons or their orientation, the blond had decided to simply stay there until school started, the week passed like a blur, mostly because he simply sent a clone to class with orders not to speak to anybody unless spoken to first, instead of attending it himself, choosing to hide away in the mountains near their campus all day and night.

Naruto rather quickly realized that that particular order was a little pointless. Even though he was sure that his clone's somewhat blank disposition had encouraged the situation; with the exception of one person, most of the student body avoided him as a general rule, if not they were jealous of the nine year old prodigy, then because he had very quickly established a reputation as a fighter who could make a brutal beat down look lazy both in and out of classes when the first bully made his appearance.

That one amused him, it seemed no matter how advanced or enlightened the civilization seemed, the typical bully with an intimidating swagger that tried to force weaker students into obeying him would always exist.

Fortunately for Naruto, and not so fortunately for the bully who had decided that the youngest Mage on campus would make an easy target, he left the blond alone fairly quickly after the first time Naruto had broken both his legs and all his fingers before being left outside the Principal's office in a pool of his own urine and a sign permanently glued to his forehead saying, "**Kick Me**."

This was why Naruto was rather surprised to find a tall and heavy set teenager looking down at him from a cliff, while he was taking a break from his training to stare up at the sky and chew on a blade of grass. He had thought that everybody would avoid him like the plague rather than do the opposite and seek him out.

The two of them stared at each other before Naruto promptly ignored him and went back to his contemplation of the sky.

Before long, the boy left without a word.

This happened another three times, and each time Naruto doing something else, whether it was knitting or punching a rock. Though he made very sure that he was not doing anything that would reveal his capabilities, it only seemed like it was making the boy even more curious.

Or at least upset enough to keep inching closer each visit.

"Why?"

That was the first word he said to Naruto, who only faintly recognized him. Though the course was devoted to understanding the Magic Styles available and the background of the current interplanetary Magical Society for at least another week, they still had intensive physical training every day after lessons, culminating in a simple physical spar to rate each trainee at the end of the week.

And the boy was, alongside Naruto, one of four trainees who had never won a single spar. Though that was admittedly because Naruto only showed up to throw the match. In his mind, there was simply no point showing everybody what he could do in a real match.

"Why do you act like this?"

"I'm surprised you even found me here. I thought it was pretty remote." Naruto observed easily as he sat up, spitting away the blade of grass in his mouth.

"My father works for the Academy as a handyman. I know these mountains as well as I do the back of my hand." He declared confidently before narrowing his dark eyes at the blond who had propped his chin up on one hand with an indifferent look, "So when I realized that there was someone hiding up here, I started investigating immediately. When I realized it was you… I was confused. How could you be here, and in class at the same time? So I began watching you in sleep away in class every day, until I realized that the _you _in class was nothing but an illusion, a clone, while the real you was up here in the mountains."

"So… you came all this way to tell me that you've been watching me?" The blond asked quizzically with a mildly scared expression, "….Are you hitting on me?"

"LIKE HELL! I came to ask you what the hell you were doing up here!"

Naruto smirked and spread his hands around the grass, "What do you think?"

**Evanescence – Everybody's Fool.**

His fists clenched with restrained anger and his head bowed, "I've always thought about winning but I've never thought about whether I can win or not because I know I can't. every time I lose, I know it's only understandable, as long as I stagger up again…."

He pointed at the blond with an accusing finger, "But you! It's only natural for someone like you who has the ability to be so good at everything you do. You are naturally fast, you are naturally strong and you were blessed with a Core that won't lose to anybody and yet you don't try at all, even though there are people like me who have to struggle just to be accepted into this place!"

He began shaking in place as his aura flared, "To everyone else, to people like me, even if we try our hardest, can never match up against you, all we have left is to console ourselves that we've tried our best against you, even if we don't give up, So why do you spit in our face by throwing each match even though we know that you are strong, why do you belittle our efforts by sleeping in class and lounging around?! Why does a prodigy like you rub salt into our wounds by playing around when you are so favoured!?"

His eyebrow twitched.

Naruto really **hated** the word _prodigy_.

Staring at the sandy haired boy who looked about 11 or 12 with an empty gaze, he slowly stood up, "So what are you unsatisfied with? You want me to go all out, to properly show my best so that your loss feels justified. Is that correct?"

The boy glared at him defiantly, "Ye-"

He put everything into it, every inch of power he could dredge out.

Fury so pure, that he couldn't control it.

The wind blew violently as a fist that had not been there a microsecond ago grazed his cheek.

His eyes widened incredulously as they locked onto crimson ones, that one little graze had left behind a deep red scar behind on his cheek. A fiery gold aura blazed around Naruto as they stood face to face, barely an inch apart, and he growled, "**I will ask you again. You wanted me to go all out. Is that correct?**"

The ground beneath them cracked under the pressure as the stranger's knees went soft and he collapsed weakly.

Behind him, the entire mountain had simply disintegrated.

There was no rumble, not a crack, and no dust. It had simply disappeared.

The blonde merely stared down at him with blazing eyes, "When I was your age I was even weaker than you, so don't give me that crap about accepting your loss even though you never gave up to the end. It doesn't matter whether or not your opponent is immortal and invincible. Scoping out the competition is fine too, but for someone like you, the awareness of the gap between you and him is what weakens you. So ignore it, and just keep blindly fighting like the idiot you are."

Making a tsk sound of disappointment for letting himself get so riled, the blazing inferno like aura dissipated like fog on a sunny morning and the blond quietly left the clearing, resolving to find another place to train unbothered.

As the saying went, men could plan but God decided. The moment Naruto woke up, he instantly knew that it was going to be a bad morning.

Mostly because the strange boy was sitting outside his dormitory door even before the sun had rose.

"Are you **SURE** you're not going to hit on me?" Naruto murmured flatly at the boy who was shivering violently in the cold morning, "Because you're starting to act a lot like that other stalker I accidentally picked up."

"HELL NO!"

"Then why are you here?" He asked the boy who winced at the cramp in his muscles as he slowly struggled upright; a bandage covered the gash in his cheek from last night.

Silently, he pointed at Naruto's right hand, the one that had nearly torn his face off.

"Someone whose hands are this rough can't be a bad person. Besides, if all you could do when you went all out was nothing but a simple punch means you're a fairly straightforward person right?"

"…. Oh God, he started hitting on me."

"**SCREW YOU!" **struggling to regain his composure, the dark haired boy whose hair fell across one eye glared at him, "You said you used to be weak and untalented. I want to know how you got strong. I'll even train with you if necessary."

The blonde smirked, "Are you sure you want to train with me?"

"Of course."

"Very well, every morning I wake up at 4 a.m. and begin with a quick and simple run."

The boy drew a deep breath and stomped his feet a few times to get the blood in them running again, "Where are we running?" he asked with a rare resolve.

"When I first came here, I noticed this weird wall outside town. We're running on top of it, none of that magic crap either. Oh and if the guards see you, you have to start over again."

He stopped with his mouth agape, "Wall? That's the wall that encircles the Grand Cathedral…" Then it finally clicked for the boy, "That's at least 100 kilometres a lap!"

Naruto nodded casually as he focused on his shoe laces, "I normally do five laps and then 5 sets of 100 sit ups, push ups and whatever ups in 45 minutes or I won't be able to bath in time for lunch. But now that you're here, we can just keep sparring instead of boring sit ups. Fighting with a clone tends to get a little predictable since I can guess what they're about to do."

"Holy crap."

"Ah, I guess that is a bit too much for someone just starting huh? How about we just run two laps?"

"Holy crap."

"Don't worry about it, when I got unfrozen, I was a little rusty as well, 400 kilometres in an hour is rather abysmal. But I tried to keep at it every morning until I was back in shape. Now that you're here though…."

"Holy crap."

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Anthony," The broad shouldered teenager slowly grinned at the magnitude of what Naruto was asking from him, "Anthony Cruze. Don't call me Tony though, it's too common. Call me Anttt-GYAAAAH!"

The dark haired boy whose boyish good looks had gone as grey as week old porridge stared at the smoking hole between his feet.

Another inch upwards and he would have lost everything that made him a man.

"**WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"**

Naruto gave him a puzzled look, "I'm not sure. I just had this sudden urge to castrate you. Don't worry, I won't do it again."

"**THEN WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE A FORK AT MY BALLS?!" **

"Huh… how did that get there?"

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Alright, everybody get in line." The instructor clapped his hands a few times to get the attention of all the students, "I know that most of you are excited that your Orientation course has ended and you can finally get to the meet of our training, but make no mistake, we will continue to keep doing intensive physical training and spars every single we-"

There was a loud blam as the gym doors were knocked open, and two figures staggered into the hall, two of four greatest trouble makers in the entire Academy. Unlike the usual bland confidence that the blond one held in his posture, he at least seemed to be somewhat anxious this time.

Anthony however, was a whole different piece of cake. The dark haired boy with a deep scar on his left cheek could barely lift his head long enough to nod at the instructor while his arms hung from his shoulders like limp pieces of rubber.

"As I was saying," The instructor began again with a warning look at the two of them, "We're still going to have spars every week. Despite being a Magic Academy, maintaining physical fitness is a core tenet for ANY Mage. Now, you know the drill, get your numbers and get ready."

The swaying boy who looked like he couldn't even stand on his own without Naruto's help shuffled over to the instructor and weakly picked out a piece of paper from the box. Giving it a passing glance, the hunch backed Ant practically crawled over to the nearest stage, thanking every Kaiser in existence for that little blessing.

When he saw who was on the other end of the stage however, he began cursing them instead. Standing with a simple wooden sword at his side was a good looking boy of about 15. His well-groomed hair fell across his eyes rakishly as he gave the haggard looking Ant a worried look.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Anthony? You can always just forfeit like your other friend you know."

Anthony's dark eyes shifted over the other side of the gym hall where his friend had forfeited again. Only this time, he didn't simply leave the hall after. Blond hair obscured his eyes as he stood in a corner with his arms folded and Anthony knew that the blond was judging him.

**Play Naruto Shipuuden OST – Experienced Many Battles**

They had done nothing but run and fight for an entire week. It was now time to see how much he had truly gained.

"I'm not the same person I was a week ago, Elva." The broad shouldered boy muttered flatly as he joined the good looking sandy haired boy on the stage with a confidence his tired limbs did not feel, "I've trained and I've fought so much I can barely feel my toes, but I can't lose here."

Elva smiled with some resignation, "Then I'm truly sorry that I have to do this."

The wooden blade was in front of his eyes before he knew it. Dropping down with the swiftness of thunder.

All eyes blinked as the wooden blade thunked on the floor uselessly, most of all, Ant who stared at the blade like it had just talked.

"What?"

The instructor who was overseeing them slowly smiled as he made a notation on his clipboard. At the very last moment, Anthony had shuffled half a step back before stepping back into range. He was simply too tired to do anything else, much less jump away like he always did. The move was so tiny and insignificant that he wondered if anybody else had caught it.

"Hahah…" Elva laughed nervously, "I must be feeling off today."

He swiftly swung the blade again, but to all but the most attentive watcher, it simply looked like the swordsman was swinging his blade with increasingly desperate cries while the wide eyed dead last of the year just… stood there.

"How many times could you have possibly fought to have changed so much in one week!?" Ant made shuffle before he flowed back in with another shuffle.

'_We aren't talented people, we learn slower than those who are gifted. But that doesn't mean that we have to give up, that doesn't mean that we don't try at all just because we don't have that requisite talent.'_

His hands were all but useless since he could barely lift them, but there was one last weapon he had left.

_In front of his eyes, the small blond who was nearly two heads shorter than him, wrapped his tiny arms around a boulder that was bigger than four of him put together. _

'_It just means we wake up earlier, and try harder than any of those prodigies ever will.'_

_With a mighty roar, he crushed the boulder in a bear hug. _

"How many times did I fight this whole week?!" Ant slammed his forehead into Elva's nose, breaking it with a roar, "**10000 TIMES**!"

In the dark corner of the gymnasium, a small smile touched a blond's lips. Stuffing his hands in his pockets as Ant keeled over in a dead faint, he left the building with a quiet whistle.

**Play Stephanie - Friends**

"Well, at least you look happy."

His eyebrows shot up and he gaped at the two girls standing by the side of the gymnasium, "Pigtails? Fate-chan?"

The auburn haired girl scowled, "You made us wait long enough. We've been here for two days but no one could find you."

"Oh… I was… out?" Naruto offered lamely, "Did you waste too much time?"

Fate smiled gently, "It's alright, Naruto-kun. Your principal said that she would let us know when you came back so we made it in time." Giving the blond's dirty clothes and smudged face a worried expression, she rubbed his cheek with concern, "Are you sure you're alright here? You look like you haven't been eating well."

"Uhm… yeah." Naruto glanced around uneasily as Fate fussed with his clothes, "Don't worry, I'm fine. Why are you two here anyway?"

"Why else would we be here?" Nanoha snapped at him grumpily, "You don't come back for a whole month; you don't even send a simple message with Caliburn. Everyone was worried about you but no one wanted to disturb you. Then we come here and find that you've been missing for an entire week. What else were we supposed to think?"

"It's alright, Nanoha-chan. What matters is that he's fine." Fate said as she rubbed her friend's back soothingly. Then she smiled at the boy on her right sweetly, "Naruto-kun won't go missing just like again right?"

"That smile of yours is scary."

"Won't he?"

"Okay, okay." Lifting his hands helplessly, the blond finally let the warm smile appear on his face, "I really missed you two."

"Was it really that hard to learn here? Maybe we could try and arrange for you to join us at the Academy?" the blond girl between Nanoha and Naruto suggested.

"Did anyone ever tell you worry too much?" Naruto commented blandly. On her other side, Nanoha snorted.

"Naruto-kun." Seeing her reproachful look, the blond boy waved vaguely, "I'm fine. It's just been a rough week, but on the positive side, I haven't blown anything up and I haven't had to hide any bodies."

"Naruto-kun~"

He pursed his lips as Inova's grating voice reached his ears, "Yet."

"An admirer, Naruto?" Nanoha observed sourly as the blue haired woman pranced towards them, "You worked faster than I expected."

"You can have her if you want." Naruto nodded with a faint look of distaste, "If she ran as she much as her mouth does, she'd be one of the strongest people around instead of one of the skinniest bitches around."

The auburn haired girl shot him an amused look, "She looks familiar though…"

"The one we met outside the exam hall."

"Ah! So…. why is she running towards us like that?"

"The same reason why my boxers have been going missing recently."

******Caliburn Initiative******

"Crowbel, what a pleasant surprise."

"Laura, it's been a while." Crowbel nodded as she gracefully took a seat and accepted thec up of tea that her old friend had offered her.

"And what brings you here?" Diavel questioned with a faint smile as she watched the lavender haired woman sip her tea with a happy sigh.

"Can't I just come to visit you?"

"We visit each other almost every other month, Midget." The principal pointed out gently, "And you never mix work with private matters."

Pretending to cough behind one palm, the General looked out the window and observed the group of students milling around the courtyard of the Academy, "The newest abtch of students just finished their first month here isn't it?"

Diavel made a sound of agreement, "Soon they'll begin spell crafting while we try to help them understand what suits them the most and what they want to do with TSAB. The core of our training so to speak, but that's not why you're here."

Hearing it being stated so plainly, Midget only chuckled nervously, "Any interesting students this year?"

"You mean the one you specifically recommended to our Campus?" The placid Principal smiled as she sipped her own cup of tea, "Uzumaki Naruto no? He is an interesting child. Somewhat secretive but not without reason I believe?"

"That's all?"

"Well… I do believe he just bonded with another student recently." One of Diavel's eyebrows rose at the pleased look on Crowbel's face, "Does this have something to do with why you intentionally kept him off the records?"

"Maybe?"

"Hmmm….. which means his current rank is not representative of his abilities... what's his true rank?"

"It depends really." The lavender haired General admitted, "He doesn't seem to have any motivation to do better, nor does he have the abilities to fully utilize his Core, so his overall rank really does hover around C or B at best.

The principal blinked, "Wait. When you say he doesn't know how to fully utilize his Core yet… what does that mean for his composite rank?"

The lavender haired woman stirred her coffee with an intense look, "Though we still don't exactly know how he escaped it, we…. suspect that he is a descendant of a splinter group from the original Al-Hazredians that managed to survive the Great Cataclysm even though they were isolated in a pocket dimension as a result."

"What does that mean, Crowbel-sama?" the principal asked again with a penetrating look as Midget winced at the formal tone.

"Other than the fact that he's probably a living, breathing representation of our precursors and a relic that we must not let go?" Midget breathed in deeply and spoke reluctantly, "By himself, he is quite possibly the first SSS-ranked Mage since Sankt Kaiser Olivie herself."

"You're still dodging the question, Crowbel-sama." The grey haired lady immediately pointed out.

The Head of Investigators and Inspectors sighed and wondered why she was so easy to read to her friends.

"During more invasive testing, we realized that Naruto-san contained some sort of parasite within his Core, and when they worked together; his already powerful Core had no upper limit that we could define. With the right spell and mindset, he could probably achieve what the old Al Hazard Mages could, up to and including reshaping the world as he saw fit." Midget snorted, "In fact, if we take his stories about the battles back home as the Truth, he's probably not the only one since resurrecting the dead seems like a pretty trivial thing where he comes from. Something that not even Precia Testarossa, a SS-ranked Mage in her own right could achieve."

The lady opposite her was stunned speechless.

"Simply put, together with the symbiote in him, Uzumaki Naruto is the first EX-ranked Mage in existence that we know of."

******Caliburn Initiative******

**End Chapter 10**

We should really get to work…. But right now, Kur0's bouncing up and down again. I think she wants to write another crossover… probably not a serious one, but I think she fell in love with Crestia Bell and Emerald Etouve from Hataraku Maou.

Yes. My sister is an unrepentant lolicon.


End file.
